(Minghui.org) An 83-year-old Beijing woman was sentenced to three years with a 3,000-yuan fine in late November 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Lianzheng’s wrongful conviction stemmed from her arrest on August 23, 2019. The local street committee workers knocked on her door a bit past 10 a.m. that day. She did not let them in. Officer Chen Hongli then pried open the door. Ms. Wang stopped him from searching her home, and he called in more officers from the Chaoyang District Police Department. Together they confiscated her Falun Gong books and materials, computer, printer, more than 6,000 yuan cash, and other valuables.
The police took Ms. Wang to the local Anzhen Police Station and transferred her to the Chaoyang District Police Department Case Center a bit past 3 that afternoon. She suddenly fainted and was found to have high blood pressure. The police then notified her family to pick her up and said they were releasing her on one-year bail.
Officers Feng Zhixiong and He Zhiqiang from the Anzhen Police Station showed up at Ms. Wang’s home at 9:30 a.m. on January 6, 2020, and said they were there to ask her the following questions per an order from the Chaoyang District Procuratorate: 1) whether she owned the printer confiscated from her home on August 23, 2019? 2) did she print the confiscated Falun Gong materials herself? 3) who did she have contact with? 4) whether she still went out to distribute Falun Gong materials while on bail. 5) did she continue to practice Falun Gong?
Ms. Wang replied that she’d of course keep practicing Falun Gong as it gave her a second life. Before she took up Falun Gong in January 1996 at the age of 55, she suffered from numerous diseases, including bradycardia (slow heart rate), hypotension (low blood pressure), thrombocytopenia (low blood platelet count), polycythemia vera (increase in blood cells that makes the blood thicker), cervical spine strain, and spinal stenosis (which resulted in insufficient blood supply to her brain and she often went into shock as a result). All her symptoms disappeared after she began to practice Falun Gong. She also quit her 36-year-long addiction to smoking without any trouble.
The police left after hearing her story.
The Chaoyang District Procuratorate summoned Ms. Wang on January 13, 2024. She started feeling uncomfortable while on her way there. After arriving at the procuratorate, she was still unable to talk. Her adult child who accompanied her answered the questions asked by the prosecutors. She managed to utter yes when one prosecutor asked if she still practiced Falun Gong. Another prosecutor was heard saying, “She is old and in poor health.” She was then let go and asked to wait for a call from the Chaoyang District Court.
The court notified her of her prison sentence at the end of November 2023. It was unclear whether a trial was ever held and when she would be taken into custody to serve time.
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