(Minghui.org) After a cancer patient was forced to attend three court hearings despite her failing health, she was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and fined 4,000 yuan. Her lawyer filed an appeal soon after she received the verdict on October 16, 2018.
When Ms. Gao Cuifang's lawyer met with her at Kunming City Detention Center on November 23, 2018, Ms. Gao told her lawyer that Judge Zhao Yong from the Kunming Intermediate Court attempted to persuade her to drop her appeal and to receive medical treatment in the prison. Ms. Gao refused to comply and persisted in her appeal.
After meeting with Ms. Gao, her lawyer submitted another application for medical parole to the intermediate court titled “Help! Help! Help!” on November 25.
The lawyer said in the application that Ms. Gao is seriously ill with thyroid cancer and needs immediate medical attention.
The lawyer wrote that while he went over her case documents at the intermediate court on November 23, he noticed that the Kunming City Detention Center had filed a formal request with Xundian County Court on October 9, the same day of her second hearing. The request stated that detention center guards took Ms. Gao for medical examination on August 9 and September 26 and that her doctors confirmed that she has cancer and recommended a surgery to remove the tumor. The detention center requested to terminate her detention and to release her on medical parole.
On October 10, Xundian County Procuratorate also filed a document with Xundian County Court requesting to release Ms. Gao on medical parole as her physical condition wasn't suitable for continued detention.
Nevertheless, Judge Zhang Yunjiang of Xundian County Court sentenced her to prison despite her critical condition and letters from both the detention center and the procuratorate.
The lawyer said in his application to the intermediate court that Zhang must be held responsible should any unfortunate event happen to his client.
Ms. Gao was arrested on April 29, 2018 for putting up two posters that read, “Falun Dafa is good.” She has been detained at Kunming No.1 Detention Center since.
She first appeared in court on August 10 and was forced to sit through a four-hour session when she was near collapse. Her second hearing on October 9 was adjourned when she became too weak to talk. Judge Zhang resumed the hearing six days later without her lawyer, who had another hearing that was scheduled months earlier.
Zhang announced Ms. Gao’s prison sentence the day after her third hearing.
Previous reports:
Hearing Adjourned After Critically Ill Woman Became Too Weak to Talk
