(Minghui.org) Two sisters in Baishan City, Jilin Province were arrested in April 2019 for their faith in Falun Gong, and one of them has recently been sentenced to a three year and nine month prison term.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Xiaoqin and Ms. Zhang Xiaolian were arrested at the latter's home on April 16, 2019. The police ransacked both sisters’ homes and confiscated their computers, printers, phones, cash, and Falun Gong books and related materials.
Ms. Zhang Xiaolian was detained for 15 days while Ms. Zhang Xiaoqin was sentenced to a three year and nine month prison term and sent to Changchun Women’s Prison in January 2020.
Ms. Zhang Xiaolian’s Previous Arrests
This is not the first time that Ms. Zhang Xiaolian has been arrested for refusing to renounce her faith in Falun Gong.
On January 30, 2003, officers from the Wangou Town Police Station barged into Ms. Zhang’s home, saying that someone had reported her for practicing Falun Gong.
The police confiscated her Falun Gong books and related materials, and took her to the police station. She was locked to a metal chair for a night before being transferred to Jiangyuan Detention Center, where she was held for more than a month.
The police attempted to extort 5,000 yuan from her family for her release, but were rejected by her husband. She was then sent to the Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp and detained there for a year.
Attempting to force Ms. Zhang to give up her belief, inmates at the labor camp deprived her of sleep for 12 days. On the 13th day, the guards shocked her with electric batons, causing her to become delirious and have causing extensive bruising.
After she signed a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong, she was forced to do unpaid labor for 14 hours a day, sometimes working overtime until midnight. A month later, she wrote a solemn declaration, declaring that the guarantee statement was null and void. The guards retaliated by extending her term by ten days.
After Ms. Zhang was released, the police refused to issue her ID and hukou (household registration record), which caused tremendous difficulty for her in her daily life.
Ms. Zhang was home on January 11, 2006 when two police officers from Wangou Police Station barged into her house. The officers took away her voice recorder and arrested her. She was later detained at Jiangyuan Detention Center where she went on a hunger strike for more than ten days, and fainted. The detention center doctor was ordered to give her an injection, and her family was informed to take her home afterwards.
Ms. Zhang was arrested one more time on July 30, 2015, after she filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime, who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.
The police carried her to the police station when she refused to go with them. That afternoon, the police took her to Jiangyuan District Hospital to have her blood drawn before sending her to Baishan City Detention Center. She was released seven days later after she went on a hunger strike again.
