Yu Guizhen (于桂珍) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Changchun, Jilin Province, who was reported to be 57 years old at the time her case was documented in 2023. She is serving a five-year prison sentence.
According to a case notice published by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), Yu Guizhen was taken from her home in Changchun on the evening of October 16, 2021, by police from the Xixin Police Station of the Lüyuan District. After 17 days in the Weizigou Detention Center, she was moved to the Changchun No. 4 Detention Center. In June 2022, the Changchun Chaoyang District Court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment; her appeal was rejected by the Changchun Intermediate People’s Court, which upheld the original verdict. On December 7, 2022, she was transferred to the 8th Ward of the Jilin Women’s Prison (吉林省女子监狱).
The notice further states that Yu Guizhen had previously been held twice in the Changchun Heizhuzi Women’s Re-education-Through-Labor facility, for a cumulative period of more than four years.
Yu Guizhen also appears in the prisoner roster published by the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network (维权网) in its Issue-131 report, which places her in the group of prisoners sentenced to five years — consistent with the five-year sentence documented above.
Status: Currently imprisoned, per the most recent dated evidence (July 2023). A five-year term beginning in 2022 is not yet complete.
Case facts at a glance: 于桂珍 (Yu Guizhen); Changchun, Jilin Province; age 57 at documentation (2023), female; detained October 16, 2021 (Changchun, Lüyuan District); 5 years’ imprisonment (Changchun Chaoyang District Court, June 2022); appeal rejected by Changchun Intermediate Court; Jilin Women’s Prison, 8th Ward (transferred December 7, 2022); prior detention: two prior terms in the Changchun Heizhuzi women’s labor facility, totaling more than four years (as reported).
Sources for the facts above are listed in the media archive. Characterizations of the proceedings as unlawful reflect the reporting organization’s own descriptions and are attributed accordingly.
Identity note: Yu Guizhen is not the same person as Yu Guichun (于桂春, Shenyang, 8-year sentence) — different persons and cases.