(Minghui.org) A Baoding City, Hebei Province, resident was recently admitted to the Hebei Province Women’s Prison to serve a 3.5-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Ximei, 58, a retired employee of the Tianwei Transformer Factory, was arrested in a police sweep on April 9, 2024. The police first held her at a local resort, the Xiulan Mountain Villa, for ten days. They brought in psychology experts to work on her and other practitioners, through means such as interrogation, intimidation and sleep deprivation. When the practitioners remained firm in Falun Gong, the police transferred them to the Baoding City Detention Center on April 19, 2024.
The Jingxiu District Procuratorate approved Ms. Zhang’s arrest in late May 2024 and transferred her case to the Gaoyang County Procuratorate. She was indicted shortly after.
The Gaoyang County Court tried Ms. Zhang at the Baoding City Detention Center on November 13, 2024. Judge Li Zhiyong presided over the trial. Prosecutor Yang Fan was also present. Ms. Zhang testified in her own defense. She insisted that she didn’t violate any law in practicing Falun Gong or trying to be a good person. Her lawyer and family defender also demanded her acquittal.
Judge Li sentenced Ms. Zhang to 3.5 years with a 10,000-yuan fine at an unknown time. She appealed to the Baoding City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold the verdict. She was admitted to the Hebei Province Women’s Prison in the capital of Shijiazhuang.
Most female Falun Gong practitioners who were sentenced in Hebei Province served time at the Hebei Province Women’s Prison. Each of the divisions has its own persecution tactics. The most frequently used torture methods include beating, starvation, long hours of standing, slapping in the face, stuffing mouths with dirty rags, pouring cold water all over, and not allowing the practitioners to wear warm clothes in the winter. In order to instigate hatred towards Falun Gong practitioners, the guards also forbade the entire division from eating if some practitioners refused to renounce Falun Gong.
In addition to the physical torture, the practitioners are also forced to read propaganda materials slandering Falun Gong or write thought reports. Some inmates put paper slips written with slandering words into the practitioners’ shoes.
Past Persecution
Ms. Zhang suffered a head injury when she was around 7. Since then, she had chronic headaches and no medicine could alleviate the pain. After reading Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, her headaches went away and her mind felt refreshing and clear.
For talking to a woman about how she benefited from Falun Gong, Ms. Zhang was reported by her and arrested on January 17, 2019 by officers from the Jiannan Police Station. The Gaoyang County Court sentenced her to three years and two months on November 12, 2019.
While she was incarcerated at the Hebei Province Women’s Prison, Ms. Zhang was subjected to frequent beatings and brainwashing. She was deprived of sleep and not allowed to take a shower. Because she refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards held her in solitary confinement and kept the curtains closed. They once deprived her of sleep for seven days and forced her to hold a “horse stance.” They placed a book on the top of her head and beat her with a ruler when the book fell. They also kicked her if she closed her eyes.
After Ms. Zhang was released on March 16, 2022, officers from the Tianwei Police Station frequently harassed her. They threatened her not to go out and arranged people to monitor her.
Mother Persecuted to Death
Ms. Zhang’s mother, Ms. Yang Xianxiang, was also subjected to long term harassment for practicing Falun Gong. While Ms. Zhang was imprisoned, Ms. Yang was so worried about her that her health declined quickly. She passed away in March 2024, one month before Ms. Zhang’s latest arrest.
To fulfill Ms. Yang’s wish, Ms. Zhang gave some of her Falun Gong keepsakes to other practitioners, which became her “crime” when the police found out about it.
Related Reports:
Two Previously Imprisoned Hebei Residents Convicted Again For Practicing Falun Gong
Baoding City, Hebei Province: Five Falun Gong Practitioners Detained for Two Months and Counting
Hebei Woman Sentenced to Three Plus Years for Telling People about Falun Gong
Hebei Woman Faces Indictment for Talking to People about Her Persecuted Faith
The Intermediate Court in Baoding City Unreasonably Affirms Illegal Sentences of Dafa Practitioners
Copyright © 1999-2025 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
