(Minghui.org) An 85-year-old woman was taken back to her hometown in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province by an ambulance on October 25, 2024, after she became critically ill while serving a three-year prison term for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Yao Jingjiao’s family rushed her to the Jieyang City Chinese Medicine Hospital, and she remains in the intensive care unit at the time of this writing. She is extremely weak and can barely talk. The prison authorities said that she is to finish her term outside of prison, and warned her loved ones to not invite local Falun Gong practitioners to visit her.
Ms. Yao was arrested on June 14, 2020 and released on bail the next day. The police and the local street committee kept harassing her at home. Her bail conditions were renewed twice, in June 2021 and June 2022. The Jiedong District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Yao on April 22, 2022, and the Jiedong District Court tried her in August 2022. She was sentenced to three years with a 30,000-yuan fine in November 2022 and remained on bail afterwards.
The Rongcheng District Domestic Security Office took Ms. Yao for a physical examination on May 5, 2023. She was found to have high blood pressure, but the police still took her to the Jiedong District Detention Center, where she was held until she was transferred to the Guangdong Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Guangzhou) in early July 2023. Due to her persistent high blood pressure and declining health, the prison placed her in its in-house hospital on the day of her admission.
The prison guards forced Ms. Yao to write various statements to renounce and denounce Falun Gong against her will, which further aggravated her pre-existing health conditions.
As Ms. Yao fell into critical condition, the prison called an ambulance to drive her back to Jieyang City on October 25, 2024. They told her family that she was to serve the remainder of her term outside of prison. Her loved ones were threatened not to contact local Falun Gong practitioners, lest they face consequences.
84-Year-Old Imprisoned Three Years for Her Faith
Two Women in Their 80s Taken into Custody to Serve Time for Their Faith
84-Year-Old Imprisoned Three Years for Her Faith
Two Women, 83 and 80, Sentenced to Prison for Reading Falun Gong Books Together
Jieyang City, Guangdong Province: 18 Arrested in One Day, 9 Still Detained