(Minghui.org) When Ms. Huang Qiuzhen was arrested for her faith in Falun Gong in March 2018, her son had just gotten married a few months earlier. While she remained detained and was later sentenced to four years in prison, her daughter-in-law became pregnant and had a baby.
The young couple, who lives in a different city, brought their one-year-old son to visit her in December 2019, only to be told that she was hospitalized for a stroke. The prison authorities didn't allow Ms. Huang's family to see her on the grounds that she refused to renounce Falun Gong. The 61-year-old woman was thus unable to meet her grandson for the first time.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Huang, a resident of Xianning City, Hubei Province, was arrested on March 4, 2018, after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She escaped from the local police station, only to be arrested again when she returned home on March 14. The police searched her place and confiscated her Falun Gong books, computer, and other personal belongings.
The authorities kept her at Xian’an Detention Center and refused to allow her to see her mother, in her 80s, for the last time before she passed away.
Ms. Huang was secretly sentenced to four years in prison in September 2019. She was taken to Wuhan Women’s Prison on October 23, 2019, before the intermediate court issued a ruling on her appeal.
Shortly after Ms. Huang was admitted to the prison, two guards found her older sister and asked for tens of thousands of yuan to treat her illness.
Her sister refused to pay and said Ms. Huang was perfectly healthy before she was arrested. She suspected that Ms. Huang may have been abused and said the prison should be responsible for her sister's medical expenses. The two guards then said the money would be used to buy daily necessities for Ms. Huang. After her sister’s repeated questioning, the two guards revealed that Ms. Huang had diabetes and a back problem and that she was unable to stand straight.
When Ms. Huang’s sister asked to visit her, the guards turned her down.
On December 23, 2019, Ms. Huang’s son brought his wife and their son to visit her in prison. The guards rejected their meeting request on the grounds that Ms. Huang refused to give up her faith. One guard gave them a notice saying Ms. Huang had been hospitalized after suffering an acute stroke, before asking the family to leave.
Worried about his mother, Ms. Huang’s son asked his aunt to hire a local lawyer to visit Ms. Huang and apply for medical parole for her.
The local residential committee refused to provide a certificate proving the relationship between Ms. Huang and her sister, which was required for her to hire the lawyer.
Ms. Huang, a retired tobacco company employee, took up Falun Gong in 1996. She credits the practice for turning her into a better person. She took good care of her elderly parents-in-law and her leukemia-stricken husband.
For not giving up her faith, however, Ms. Huang was repeatedly arrested and had her home ransacked. She was suspended from work for three years, resulting in tremendous financial losses. She also served two years in a forced labor camp and was abused.
