(Clearwisdom.net) Five practitioners from Xuanhua District, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province--Ms. Liu Yuzhi, Ms. Hu Zhimei, Ms. Li Guirong, Ms. Lei Wenxia, and Ms. Liu Yuan--were sentenced secretly after being illegally detained in a detention center for nine to 14 months, although their terms had already expired. Ms. Liu Yuzhi was sentenced to 12 years; Ms. Hu Zhimei and Ms. Li Guirong were both sentenced to six years; Ms. Lei Wenxia was sentenced to four years; and Ms. Liu Yuan was sentenced to three years. They were sent to the Hebei Province Women's Prison in Shijiazhuang City. Among them, the oldest is almost 70 years old, and the youngest is nearly 60 years old. Their whole sentencing procedure was absolutely illegal: the sentencing was done in the small courtyard of the detention center. Those who sentenced them dared not make this public and dared not notify any of the family members of the five practitioners.
On January 18, 2008, when a relative of one of the practitioners went to the detention center, the relative was told that the practitioners had been taken to prison more then ten days before. When asked where they had been sent, the policeman answered, "I don't know, I won't tell you." The relative said, "You won't even tell me where you have sent my family member, so I can't even find out whether she is dead or alive. If she is dead I can't even see the body." After that, the policeman said, "In the women's prison in Shijiazhuang City."
Ms. Liu Yuzhi was taken away from home on the afternoon of April 3, 2007, by officers from Dongsheng Police Station in the Xuanhua District. Ms. Li Guirong was arrested from her home on April 5. Ms. Hu Zhimei, 63 years old, was detained for 12 months for going to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong on April 22, 2001, and had been sentenced to forced labor for two years.
January 19, 2008
