(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhao Xiang filed a complaint against the local police three months after her release from prison. The Cangzhou City resident had served one year and five months for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
She accuses the police of changing her blood pressure readings to keep her detained and eventually sentenced. She also complained about police deceit and brutality during her detention.
Ms. Zhao was one of forty-two practitioners arrested at a private gathering in Cangzhou City, Hebei Province on August 17, 2014. She was released, only to be seized five days later when she went to inquire about other practitioners at Yunhe Branch Police Department.
She was given criminal detention right afterwards. The police then took her to get a physical examination, which is required for criminal detention.
Her blood pressure levels were read above 190 mmHg which is well above normal levels of 120-140 mmHg and too high to be accepted by the detention center.
The police changed her blood pressure readings right in front of her and managed to get her admitted.
While driving her to the detention center, the police told her that she would be in temporary custody and would be released after the weekend.
She was still detained on Monday, August 25. Ms. Zhao waited anxiously for more than a month, but there was still no sign of her release.
She went on a hunger strike on October 8 in protest. She was brutally force-fed at a hospital five days later and then tightly handcuffed with both hands behind her back for two days, resulting in injury to her left shoulder.
Ms. Zhao was illegally tried on November 9, 2015. During the trial, Ms. Zhao claimed that she was tortured during interrogation, which the presiding judge dismissed. Yunhe District Court then sentenced her to one year and five months in prison in December.
Before the trial, her lawyer encountered various obstacles in his efforts to defend her. He filed an appeal on her behalf after the sentencing, but the higher court upheld the initial verdict. Ms. Zhao wasn't released from prison until January 15 of this year.
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Tang Guoli (唐国利): police at Yunhe District Branch Police Department +86-13603271866 (Cell), +86-317-5309879 (Office)
Li Yi (李毅), police at Yunhe District Branch Police Department +86-13383079711(Cell)