Mr. Cao Zhengguo from Ezhou City Illegally Sentenced to 1.5 Years of Forced Labor

Name: Cao Zhengguo (曹正国)
Gender: Male
Age: 45
Address: Ezhou City, Hubei Province
Occupation: Former factory worker at Wuhan Iron & Steel Group Echeng Co., Ltd.
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 14, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shayang, Hubei Province (湖北沙洋某處)
City: Shayang
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Cao Zhengguo was illegally arrested for giving a Shen Yun Performing Arts DVD to a plainclothes officer from Changling Township Police Station in Ezhou on the morning of April 14, 2012. Mr. Cao was sent to the Ezhou City Detention Center and held there for 15 days. Later, he was secretly sentenced to 1.5 years of forced labor and transferred to a forced labor camp in Shayang, Hubei Province.

Although Mr. Cao was arrested by officers from the Changling Township Police Station, his case was handled by the Xishan Police Department of Ezhou. The heads of the 610 Office at the Xishan Police Department are Zhou Qichi and Liu Zhaofa.

According to insiders' information, Mr. Cao’s imprisonment may be related to Zhou Yongkang’s recent visit to Ezhou. Zhou Yongkang, the chief of the communist regime's Political and Legal Affairs Committee and one of the primary perpetrators responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong, hosted a forum at the Xishan Police Department on April 19, 2012.

Since the Chinese communist regime launched a brutal campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in July 1999, Mr. Cao has spent over 11 years in detention.

In January 2000, Mr. Cao was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. Immediately after his release from a prison in Shayang at the end of February 2001, he was taken to the Lianhuashan Brainwashing Center. As he refused to renounce his belief, he was then held for 7 months in the Ezhou No. 1 Detention Center.

Mr. Cao was arrested again in late 2001 for speaking to people about Falun Gong. He was secretly sentenced to 9 years in prison.

Many of Mr. Cao's family members have also been persecuted for their belief. His wife, Ms. Li Shaoxian, was imprisoned for 1.5 years. Mr. Cao's mother-in-law passed away due to the persecution. His brother-in-law, Mr. Li Shaojun, disappeared after appealing for the right to practice Falun Gong in Beijing. Mr. Cao’s daughter, a good student, can no longer afford to attend high school because of the persecution her family has suffered. She has had to start working instead.

We appeal to people around the world to help rescue Mr. Cao.

Parties involved in the persecution:

Xishan Police Department of Ezhou: [phone]
Ezhou Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone]
Ezhou Police Bureau: [phone]
Ezhou 610 Office: [phone] 3830110
Echeng Police Department: [phone]