(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhao Shanying, a 75-year-old Changchun City, Jilin Province resident, was recently sentenced to prison for her faith in Falun Gong. Her daughter-in-law, who was arrested one month later, is also facing trial for sharing the same faith.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhao was followed by the police home on November 26, 2020, and then arrested. When her family went to the Rongguanglu Police Station to seek her release two days later, the police said she had been hospitalized after having high blood pressure at the Changchun City No.4 Detention Center. The police didn’t allow her family to visit her.
Ms. Zhao’s son, Mr. Zhu Xiaoguang, returned to the police station several times to seek Ms. Zhao’s release, but to no avail.
Jiang Tiecong and Teng Yunsheng of the Hongqijie Police Station also arrested Mr. Zhu and his wife, Ms. Yang Li, late in the afternoon of December 16. Although Mr. Zhu was released in the evening due to his physical condition, Ms. Yang, 44, was kept in custody. When Mr. Zhu later went to the police station to seek his wife’s release, the police refused to release her and said they would take her to the Changchun City No.4 Detention Center soon.
On December 24, an officer surnamed Hu called Mr. Zhu and told him that they had submitted his mother’s case to the Erdao District Procuratorate. On the next day, the police also submitted his wife’s case to the Chaoyang District Procuratorate.
Officers of the Shenzhenjie Police Station called Mr. Zhu on January 18, 2021, and asked about his address and whether he practices Falun Gong. They said officers of the Hongqijie Police Station provided them with Mr. Zhu’s number.
Ms. Yang was indicted and had her case moved to the Chaoyang District Court on February 25, 2021. Her mother-in-law was indicted on March 9 and had her case forwarded to the same court.
When Ms. Yang’s lawyer went to the court on April 9 to review her case document, he saw that the indictment stated that she was accused of promoting Falun Gong to a person named Zhang Shichao in a residential area near the Transportation College at 1 p.m. on December 14, 2020, two days before her arrest.
The lawyer asked Ms. Yang about the incident when visiting her on April 16. Ms. Yang said that December 14 was a Monday and she was working all day, without going to other places. Yet the indictment stated that the police had verified the account with her, and both she and Zhang signed the witness account.
While Ms. Yang is still awaiting trial, her husband learned on May 21 that his mother has already been sentenced, but the length of her term isn’t clear at the time of writing.
Past Persecution of Ms. Yang
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Yang has been persecuted for her faith. She was previously arrested on May 9, 2007, and interrogated overnight. The police beat her, especially on the head, with bottles filled with water. She had multiple injuries on her body.
The police transferred Ms. Yang to the basement of the Changchun City Police Department the next day and tied her to a tiger bench. She still refused to answer any questions. Due to the beating, she lost consciousness and was then removed from the bench. The police poured cold water over her head to wake her up, but she remained in an unconscious state. She was left on the floor overnight.
Torture illustration: tiger bench
Ms. Yang was taken to the Changchun City No.3 Detention Center on the evening of May 11. She held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The police chained her hands and feet together for two days, rendering her unable to stand up or squat.
Two weeks later, Ms. Yang was given one year at the notorious Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp without due process.
She was forced to work 15 to 16 hours a day without pay. Most of the work she did was to make crafts. After the work was over at 8 p.m. and before she went to bed, the guards forced her to sit on a small stool without moving for one or two hours. From time to time, she was forced to watch propaganda videos smearing Falun Gong and write thought reports.
On August 12, 2008, during the Beijing Olympics and three months after Ms. Yang was released on May 10, 2008, she was arrested again by officers pretending to collect a waste management fee. The officers claimed that because she didn’t renounce Falun Gong in the labor camp, they were giving her some more education in the brainwashing center.
Ms. Yang’s father frequented the local 610 Office, Political and Legal Affairs Committee and residential committee to seek her release. She returned home ten days later.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yang Fan (杨帆), head of Hongqijie Police Station: +86-15904404584Jiang Tiecong (姜铁聪), police officer of Hongqijie Police Station: +86-18343093128Teng Yunsheng (滕云生), police officer of Hongqijie Police Station: +86-15104494420Hu (胡), police officer of Rongguanglu Police Station: +86-15754363956Lin Haifeng (林海峰), prosecutor of Chaoyang District Procuratorate: +86-431-85838071Zhao Ruoyu (赵若愚), judge of Chaoyang District Court: +86-431-88559210, +86-18604450313
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related report:
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
