A Nearly Seventy-Year-Old Practitioner Is Secretly Imprisoned in Deyang City, Sichuan Province

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Intermediate Court in Deyang City, Sichuan Province upheld the sentence handed down to Ms. Wang Zhongqiong, 69, from Shifang City, Deyang City, during her initial trial. She was later secretly taken to the Sichuan Provincial Women's Prison on February 13th, 2009.

On the morning of October 12th, 2007, Ms. Wang and her husband were arrested by State Security Division personnel while walking on an open road. Her husband was released that same evening but Ms. Wang was taken to the Deyang Municipal Detention Centre.

On December 8th, 2008, the Shifang Municipal Court conducted a sham trial and sentenced Ms. Wang and Ms. Chen Ru, a fellow practitioner, to four- and three-year prison terms, respectively. During the trial, the judge refused to allow the two families to defend the practitioners, nor did he allow the families to hire a defence lawyer. The trial was carried out in a haphazard way and the final verdict was hastily announced.

When Ms. Wang and her family member appealed the verdict, an appeal date was arranged for January 8th-9th, 2009. Ms. Wang's family member had chosen lawyer Han Zhiguang from the Gongdao Law Firm in Beijing City to represent Ms. Wang. Soon afterwards, Qing Jiabin, the deputy judge of the Second Criminal Court of Deyang Municipal Intermediate Court, claimed that the appeal trial had been cancelled and ordered the lawyer to submit a written defence instead.

On February 10th, 2009, a close relative of Ms. Wang's prepared a defence on her behalf and filled in all the necessary paperwork in order to set up a meeting with Ms. Wang.

Qing told the relative that the case was still in progress and that the court was considering his request of having Ms. Wang's original sentence overturned and to have her unconditionally released.

At that time Qing did not permit her family member and the person designated to defend Ms. Wang to meet, claiming that he had not yet received her defence lawyer's updated letter or his written defence document. However, the defence lawyer had already submitted a letter and an application form to the court requesting that the second trial be open to the public in the first week of January 2009.

However, on the day of the trial, the Deyang Municipal Intermediate Court secretly issued a final verdict of "guilty" as charged, thus upholding the Shifang Municipal Court's original sentence. Ms. Wang's family member sought the advice of the Criminal Court presiding judge Hu Ju, but Hu refused to meet with them. In addition, and without informing Ms. Wang's family members, Hu requested that the Deyang Municipal Detention Centre immediately transfer Ms. Wang to the Eighth Prison Area of the Sichuan Provincial Women's Prison located at Yangma Town in Jianyang City, Sichuan Province on February 13th.

On February 16th, Ms. Wang's family member went to the Deyang Municipal Detention Centre to bring her some spending money but was informed that she had been transferred to the prison.

While Ms. Wang was at the detention centre, she was subjected to all kinds of abuse; her once healthy body started showing symptoms of hematuria, bodily dysfunction, and hypertension. Due to the mental and physical torture that she was subjected to, she suffered a mental collapse and was unable to take care of herself. The 610 Office¹ did not permit her family members to visit and instead arranged for two criminals inmates to look after her.

Chen Gang, director of the 610 Office of the Deyang Municipal Political and Judiciary Committee: 86-838-2209087
Xu Zhenggang, director of the Deyang Municipal Intermediate Court
Hu Ju, presiding judge of the Criminal Court
Luo Weimin, judge
Qing Jiabin, deputy judge
Zhang Qianxi, clerk
Xu Cong, manager of the Deyang Municipal Detention Centre
Sichuan Provincial Women's Prison: 86-832-7722192, 86-832-7722911

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/2/20/195803.html