(Minghui.org) A 66-year-old woman was forced to do unpaid labor and was held in solitary confinement, while serving eight months for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. 

Ms. Zhou Yulan, of Benxi City, Liaoning Province, was first arrested on May 2, 2018 for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police submitted her case to the procuratorate and attempted to send her to prison. But after the local Benxi City Detention Center refused to accept Ms. Zhou due to her tuberculosis, the police had to release her on bail.

Ms. Zhou was arrested again on July 8, 2019 while visiting her son in Guizhou Province, again for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police in Guizhou sent her back to Benxi, where she was put under house arrest after the detention center still refused to accept her. She appeared in the Hengren County Court on November 1, 2019 and was sentenced to eight months on November 21. 

Ms. Zhou appealed the verdict, but her appeal was rejected by the Benxi City Intermediate Court without a hearing.

The police first held Ms. Zhou in a humid solitary confinement cell in the detention center for a month. She was forced to sleep on the cold and humid floor and denied any medical treatment despite her severe tuberculosis. 

Ms. Zhou was sent to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on December 31, 2019. She was forced to do long hours of unpaid labor every day. The guards still ordered her to work even when her blood pressure increased to a dangerously high level. Ms. Zhou was released in July 2020 after more than six months of mistreatment in prison.

Related report:

Liaoning Woman Given Eight Months in Prison for Talking to People about Her Faith