(Minghui.org) A retired senior engineer in Beijing has been held incommunicado for over nine months for her faith in Falun Gong. The local Haidian District Detention Center doesn’t allow her family to visit or call her, and only accepts clothes and cash her family sent her.
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. Li Zhanjin, 72, is a former senior engineer at the Qingniao Company affiliated with Beijing University. She was arrested on September 29, 2019. The officers ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books and computer, with the entire incident videotaped.
Ms. Li took up Falun Gong in 1996. She lives by Falun Gong’s principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” and has been enjoying good health since.
After the communist regime launched the persecution on July 20, 1999, Ms. Li was arrested two days later, while on her way to appeal to the government about the right to practice her faith. She was held in custody until noon the next day. In the next 12 months, she was arrested four times on December 26, April 13, April 17 and July 19, respectively. She was detained briefly each time.
Ms. Li was arrested one more time in January 2001 for visiting a practitioner. She was sent to Daxing County Forced Labor Camp on March 26 and subjected to brainwashing for a month. She escaped and went into hiding, only to be taken back into custody around October 2001 and then given 1.5 years at Beijing City Women’s Forced Labor Camp.
Ms. Li was arrested again on December 29, 2009. She was sent to Haidian District Detention Center that evening and held there for nearly 14 months. The guards didn’t allow her family to visit her and forced her to sit on a small stool without moving for long hours every day. Her mind became numb, her vision declined, and her teeth fell out because of the torture.
After a hearing in July 2010, the Haidian District Court sentenced Ms. Li to three years. She was sent to Beijing Women’s Prison on March 14, 2011 and released on December 28, 2012.
Related report:
Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Li Zhanjin, a Senior Engineer from Beijing, Illegally Imprisoned
