Elderly Woman Sentenced to Eight-Year Prison Term for Handing Out Falun Gong Pamphlets

Name: Shi Yazhen
Gender: Female
Age: 67
Address: Carbon Factory Residence Area
Occupation: Unknown
Date of most recent arrest: May 7th, 2010
Most recent place of detention: Changchun Heizuizi Women Prison
City: Jilin
Province: Jilin
Persecution suffered: Imprisonment, home ransacked, detention

Ms. Shi Yazhen was secretly sentenced to an eight-year prison term for handing out pamphlets about Falun Gong. Her relatives asked, “Why are the authorities afraid of an old woman? What are they afraid of?”

More than seven months elapsed from the day Ms. Shi was arrested until she was transferred to the prison. Ms. Shi's family received no legal documents or notices whatsoever during that time. The whole thing was "black case work." The Hadawan Police Station called Ms. Shi's family in January 2011, and said that Ms. Shi had been sentenced to eight years of prison and transferred to the Changchun Heizuizi Women's Prison. Ms. Shi's husband, in his 70s, was shocked by the news.

Ms. Shi was arrested by Jing Chunlei and several other officers from the Hadawan Police Station for handing out pamphlets about Falun Gong on Wusong Road at around 8:00 p.m. on May 7th, 2010. Jing Chunlei and four plainclothes officers then broke into her home and ransacked the place. The police confiscated Falun Gong books, three computers, about 150 yuan¹ in cash, and other personal belongings. Ms. Shi was held in the Jilin Detention Centre for more than six months and secretly sentenced later.

Ms. Shi's husband has been in poor health, and Ms. Shi took care of all the housework. Her arrest was hard on her husband, and his heart problem recurred. Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Ms. Shi's husband misses her and worries about her.

Personnel involved:

Jing Chunlei, deputy director of Hadawan Police Station in Jilin City: 86-13844659922 (Mobile)
Guo Rui, officer with the Changyi District Police Department: 86-13500984499 (Mobile)
Du Xingze, officer with the Domestic Security Division of Changyi District Police Department: 86-13704428038 (Mobile), 86-432-2485537
Shan Lianhong, Changyi District Court: 86-432-2404780

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/1/25/235309.html