(Minghui.org) Three Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province residents have been detained for a month for their faith in Falun Gong. One, Ms. Zhang Fengyun, is suffering from dangerously high blood pressure, yet the authorities have refused to release her on bail.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang and Li Mingfang were talking to people about Falun Gong on the street on the morning of October 13, 2020, when they ran into a plainclothes police officer and were arrested. The police ransacked their homes and confiscated their Falun Gong books. No confiscation list was provided.
At around 6 p.m. that same day, a third practitioner, Ms. Sima Jing, was also arrested and her home was ransacked. As Ms. Sima was with Ms. Zhang and Ms. Li before their arrests earlier that day, her family suspects that the police had tracked her through surveillance camera.
All three practitioners were put on criminal detention on October 16 and sent to the Shijiazhuang City No. 2 Detention Center.
Ms. Zhang’s lawyer has visited her twice in the detention center in the past month. The 64-year-old woman is experiencing life-threatening high blood pressure, which wouldn’t come down despite medical treatment. She is also experiencing serious constipation. The physical discomfort has caused her to be unable to eat or sleep. Her family and lawyer have requested several times that the detention center release her, only to be given the run-around.
The practitioners are now facing prosecution after the police submitted requests to the Qiaoxi District Procuratorate to approve their arrests on November 10, 2020. Ms. Zhang’s lawyer has submitted a letter to the procuratorate and called on the prosecutor not to approve her arrest, as no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong in China.
Ms. Sima’s father-in-law is in his 90s and her daughter-in-law is eight months pregnant. Both of them are struggling to take care of their day-to-day needs without her around.
Ms. Li’s daughter, who is now attending college and preparing for her graduate study entrance exams, is also very worried about her mother.
