(Minghui.org) Four farmers were deceived by the police into going to a detention center, where they were sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Sun Yueqin, Ms. Xu Mingxia, Ms. Zhang Xifang and Ms. Zhang Meihua are residents of Xiedian Township, Guan County, Shandong Province. They were first arrested on September 12, 2018, when they went to neighboring Ying Town in Daming County, Hebei Province to distribute informational materials about Falun Gong.
The arresting officers were from the Ying Town Police Station. The next day, Li Hongna and several other officers from the Daming County Police Department took the four women to the Handan City No. 3 Detention Center. Daming County is under the administration of Handan City in Hebei Province.
Officer Li ransacked the four practitioners’ homes and confiscated many of their personal belongings. The children at home were frightened and cried during the raid. It’s reported that Ms. Zhang Meihua’s family was extorted for over 100,000 yuan. Her cellphone and computer were also taken. Her husband was traumatized and had to be hospitalized for a month after he suffered a mental breakdown. The other three practitioners were extorted for at least 30,000 yuan each.
Ms. Zhang Meihua, Ms. Zhang Xifang and Ms. Xu were released on November 2, 2018. Ms. Sun was released four days later.
Although the practitioners never received any updates from the police about their case, they were recently deceived into going to a detention center by several officers from the Feixiang District Police Station in Handan City. It’s unclear what detention center it was and which court sentenced the practitioners to prison right after they got there. Information about their prison terms isn’t clear at the time of writing either.
The practitioners’ families are also not sure why the Feixiang District Police Station got involved when they were arrested by agents from the Ying Town Police Station.