(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhao Shuxia from Tianjin was arrested on March 6, 2016, for hanging up a Falun Gong banner during the Chinese New Year. Her arrest was approved recently and she is facing trial.
Ms. Zhao is being held in the Nankai District Detention Center. She was beaten by the guards and also had her blood drawn against her will. She has been on a hunger strike for more than 130 days to protest her illegal detention.
Ms. Zhao Shuxia
Beaten in Detention
Ms. Zhao was in the home of detained Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yang Hong in March 2016, so she could take care of that practitioner's elderly parents.
The Huayuan Neighborhood Association reported on Ms. Zhao. Officers from the Tianjin Police Department arrested her when she was grocery shopping on March 6.
They confiscated her keys and broke into Ms. Yang's home at noon. Ms. Yang's parents were terrified.
The police questioned the elderly couple and asked why they let Ms. Zhao stay with them. The couple asked, “Is it against the law to have someone stay at our home?”
The police ransacked the place and confiscated Ms. Zhao's personal belongings as well as the couple's computer.
The police ransacked Ms. Zhao's parents' home the same day and confiscated many of their personal belongings.
The police also went to Ms. Zhao's workplace several times and seized her bank cards, driver's license, printer, and Falun Gong books.
Ms. Zhao was taken to the Nankai District Detention Center. She was beaten twice. A guard slapped her with a mouse pad, bruising the flesh around her eyes. Another guard slapped her when she resisted having her blood drawn.
Ms. Zhao's attorney submitted a letter to the Naikai District Procuratorate, stating that her detention is illegal, and the people and agencies involved in the case were not following existing law. The attorney also requested the Procuratorate to investigate the beatings at the detention center.
Incarcerated in Labor Camps Twice
Ms. Zhao, 52, lives in Tianjin's Dagang District. She has been arrested and detained multiple times since the Chinese communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. She was incarcerated in labor camps twice for a total of five-and-a-half years.
She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution when she was incarcerated at the labor camp for the second time. She became emaciated and was force-fed. She was released when she was on the verge of death.
