(Minghui.org) A 58-year-old Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province, resident was recently sentenced to a 3.5-year prison term, and fined 2,000 yuan, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Jinling was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong, and was arrested days later at home on October 24, 2024 by officers from the Shanting District Domestic Security Division and the Chengtou Town Police Station. One of the officers was Zhang Zhongzhen, deputy head of the Domestic Security Division.
The police held Ms. Zhang at the Yuelou Detention Center and forbade her family from visiting her. The local court convicted her in March 2025. Details about her indictment, trial, and sentencing aren’t clear.
Ms. Zhang worked at a local agricultural bank before she retired. She started practicing Falun Gong in July 1998, and her rheumatoid arthritis soon disappeared. After the persecution started in 1999, she gave up practicing Falun Gong. In 2002, she developed conditions in her neck and lower back. To seek better health, she resumed practicing Falun Gong in 2005 and recovered from the conditions.
Ms. Zhang was reported to the police for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, arrested on May 2, 2009, and interrogated by Wang Guanglian, deputy head of the Shanting District Domestic Security Division. She was first held at the Yicheng District Detention Center and forced to work without pay, then given one year of forced labor.
Because Ms. Zhang refused to renounce Falun Gong, the bank where she worked was stripped of a provincial-level award in 2010.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again on September 9, 2011 by more than ten officers. Her workplace and home were both raided. She was forced to do free labor again while being held in the Zaozhuang City First Detention Center. Allergic to the materials used to make the product, she developed itchy scabies all over her body. On a hot summer day, she experienced a heart condition, where her lips turned dark, she had difficulty breathing, and she was unable to talk. The guards nonetheless still forced her to continue working.
The Tengzhou City Court later sentenced Ms. Zhang to 14 months. She was released from the detention center on November 8, 2012 after serving the term.
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