(Minghui.org) A couple in Li County, Hunan Province, have been detained since February 2022, for trying to overturn their daughter’s eight-year sentence for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Their daughter, Ms. Lu Wei, 32, was arrested on September 21, 2020. The police ransacked her home and held her at the Changde City Brainwashing Center.
Ms. Lu and three other practitioners—Ms. Zeng Xiaolin; Mr. Zhao Changgen, 67; and Ms. He Fuxiu, 70—appeared in the Taoyuan County Court on September 24, 2021. The judge announced their verdicts on October 9: Ms. Lu was sentenced to eight years in prison, Mr. Zhao to five years, Ms. Zeng to four years, and Ms. He to two years.
Ms. Lu’s parents, Ms. Xu Lian and her husband Mr. Lu Renhua, frequented government agencies, trying to tell the officials the facts about Falun Gong. In late February 2022, over ten officers barged into Ms. Xu’s home when she opened the door and dragged her into the police car. Mr. Lu was arrested 20 days later. Both of them have been detained ever since.
Prior to her latest arrest, Ms. Xu, 55, had already served a labor camp term and three prison terms, for a total of nine years.
Ms. Xu started practicing Falun Gong in 1998. She credits the practice for curing her many ailments and improving her character. Shortly after the onset of the persecution, she was arrested and detained for four months in 1999.
Ms. Xu was arrested again in 2003 after being reported for putting up posters about Falun Gong. She was given 1.5 years in the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp. To try to force her to renounce Falun Gong, the guards ordered her to stand for long hours every day and deprived her of sleep and restroom use for a week.
Ms. Xu’s next arrest was on November 9, 2010. Her Falun Gong books and an MP3 player were confiscated. She was sentenced to three years in Changsha Women’s Prison. The guards made her stand and squat. When she couldn’t maintain her balance while squatting, the guards tied her arms to a board and hung her by her hair to the ceiling. They later hung her up by her wrists, with her arms pulled up behind her. They also kept her feet suspended, leaving all the weight on her wrists.
That same year, her daughter, Ms. Lu, was detained for two days in the local police department.
Ms. Xu was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong in a park with another practitioner, Ms. Liu Hua, on August 13, 2016. Both were arrested. She was taken to the Baiheshan Detention Center in the afternoon. Her arrest was approved on September 23.
Both Ms. Xu and Ms. Liu appeared in the Li County Court on March 13, 2017. Judge Chen Shimin reprimanded them when they testified in their own defense. Chen also threatened to revoke their lawyers’ licenses if they continued to enter not guilty pleas for them, as well as to arrest the practitioners who were attending the trial if they spoke up for the two. Chen sentenced Ms. Xu to 3.5 years and Ms. Liu to 3 years.
Ms. Xu was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong again in a park on March 8, 2019. She was arrested and taken to the Baiheshan Detention Center the next day. She was tried in the Li County Court on August 1. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea on her behalf, but the judge still sentenced her to one year and one month.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Xiong Wenhua (熊文华), deputy secretary, Political and Legal Affairs Committee: +86-13807362557, +86-18973646876Xiang Liping (向礼平), +86-13973656550Ding Feng (丁峰), head of the Domestic Security Office: +86-13973633239, +86-18973646899
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)