(Minghui.org) The family of a 78-year-old woman who has been detained incommunicado for three months recently learned that she was put on trial at the local detention center for practicing Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhong Peizhen, of Jieyang City, Guangdong Province, was arrested on June 10, 2021, by officers in several police cars. Her family tried to stop her from being taken away and was told by the police that they would release her soon after asking her to answer some questions at their police station. However, they have kept her in custody since and denied visits by her family.
In early September 2021, Ms. Zhong’s family was informed by a local court that she had been tried at the local detention center. The judge refused to provide any information about the hearing.
Ms. Zhong’s family later learned that the authorities changed Ms. Zhong’s age from 78 to 76 in order to sentence her. Her loved ones also learned that the hearing she went through in the detention center was called a simplified hearing, which didn’t require prosecutors to be present and was usually reserved for defendants who expected to receive prison sentences of less than a year.
Ms. Zhong’s family is now very worried about her, given her advanced age and injuries in her legs incurred before her arrest.
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