(Minghui.org) Having become disabled during a previous three-year sentence, a 67-year-old woman was sentenced to six and a half years for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zheng Hongqin, of Yushu City, Jilin Province, was arrested on November 15, 2020 for talking to a plainclothes officer in a supermarket about Falun Gong. Her home was also ransacked.
Ms. Zheng developed serious medical conditions while being held at the Yushu City Detention Center and was later hospitalized. Meanwhile, the police submitted her case to the Dehui Procuratorate. She was sentenced by the Dehui City Court on June 10, 2021, and has been taken to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison.
Prior to her latest sentence, Ms. Zheng was previously arrested on October 1, 2011, for posting information to rescue a detained practitioner. She became emaciated and was very weak after nine months at Yushu Detention Center.
When she was tried by the Yushu City Court on April 28, 2012, she was carried into the courtroom and could only answer questions by nodding or shaking her head. The judge later sentenced her to three years, and she was taken to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on July 4, 2012.
In the prison, Ms. Zheng fell and broke her back while using the restroom. As the guards refused to provide her medical treatment, she became permanently disabled with a hunched back of nearly 90 degrees. She also developed severe diabetes and fainted a few times.