(Minghui.org) A 76-year-old woman in Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was indicted in May 2026, for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhao Lihui was arrested around 8 a.m. on September 14, 2025, while talking to an elderly man at a fair about Falun Gong. An officer from the Lishi Police Station grabbed her arm. Another local Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Duan Shuxia (also known as Duan Suxia), was arrested as well.
Officer Guo Yuehui from the Lishi Police Station said the matter was not in his jurisdiction and handed the two women over to the Gongnong Police Station. Two officers from the latter police station, including Wang Fan, raided Ms. Zhao’s home that afternoon. She and Ms. Duan were transferred to the Fushun City Law Enforcement Brigade for criminal detention in the evening.
A little past 3 a.m. on September 15, 2025, the police took the two women to the Fushun City Detention Center. Ms. Zhao was deemed unfit for detention after the required physical exam, and was denied admission. The police drove her to the Fushun City Second Hospital for another physical exam. Her systolic blood pressure shot up to 200 mmHg (a normal range is 120 or lower). She was also found to have severe heart failure.
After one day of inpatient care, the police drove Ms. Zhao to the same detention center again. She was still denied admission. The police tried two more times that day and eventually got her admitted to the detention center.
The deputy chief of the Gongnong Police Station took Ms. Zhao to a hospital the next day, on September 17, 2025. An officer from the Wanghua District Police Department went to the hospital around 1 p.m. that day to deliver a notice saying that Ms. Zhao was placed on six-month house arrest. Ms. Zhao was sent back home four hours later.
Officer Wang from the Gongnong Police Station called Ms. Zhao on February 1, 2026, ordering her to report to the Wanghua District Procuratorate. She said that her health did not allow her to leave her house.
Officers Wang and Lin Feng showed up at Ms. Zhao’s home the next day and drove her and a relative to the procuratorate. Prosecutor Wang Junfang deposed her. She was so weak that she slumped against the table, unable to hold herself up. Prosecutor Wang stopped the deposition and said she’d visit her at home in a few days. The police then drove her home.
Officers Wang and Lin showed up again on February 4, 2026, and drove Ms. Zhao and her husband to the fair where she was arrested. She was unable to stand, and they held her up to take pictures of her at the fair as evidence against her.
Prosecutor Wang and officer Wang showed up at Ms. Zhao’s home on March 2, 2026, to “verify the evidence.”
After Ms. Zhao’s six-month house arrest expired on May 13, 2026, the police renewed it for an unknown amount of time.
The Wanghua District Court notified Ms. Zhao on May 26, 2026, to come pick up her indictment. Her neighbor offered to go on her behalf, but the judge insisted Ms. Zhao show up in person to receive her indictment.
Her husband was notified in late July that the court was ready to have her lawyer review her case file in preparation for her trial.
It is unclear whether Ms. Duan, who was arrested with Ms. Zhao, is also facing prosecution.
Ms. Zhao’s Past Persecution
Ms. Zhao was arrested on July 7, 2000, by officer Yuan Liming, who had been following her. He raided her home and confiscated all her Falun Gong books.
A local resident surnamed Yu reported Ms. Zhao for putting up Falun Gong materials on July 8, 2001. Officer Zhou from the Gaowan Police Station soon arrested her. Chief Fu Tao and deputy chief Xu Qinghua’s brother interrogated her and raided her home, confiscating dozens of Falun Gong books and a portrait of the founder of Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhao managed to escape from the police station the next day. While living away from home, she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on November 30, 2001. She was arrested and taken back to Fushun on December 4 that year. She went on a hunger strike in protest for 13 days, and the local lockup notified the Gaowan Police Station to pick her up. The police chief took her to a hospital for force-feeding and drove her to the Wujiabao Labor Camp on December 26, 2001, to serve a three-year term.
Ms. Zhao was still on hunger strike at the time. She had almost no blood pressure and pulse. Nonetheless, the labor camp guards forced her to sleep on the concrete ground in a cell without heat. They force-fed her every day and beat her whenever she did the Falun Gong exercises.
Ms. Zhao and other steadfast practitioners were transferred to a remote location in April 2002. For three months, they were not allowed to sleep and had to stay in cells with no sunshine. Water seeped out of the wall. They developed extremely itchy scabies that oozed a yellow fluid.
Guard Meng Yan kicked and beat Ms. Zhao whenever she closed her eyes. Once she was filling her water bottle when guard Lu Kai cursed at her, “You better die soon, Pig!”
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