(Minghui.org) Two Falun Gong practitioners in Yueyang City, Hunan Province arrested in 2019 and 2020, respectively, were recently sent to a local mental hospital for refusing to renounce their faith. Both of them have been denied family visits since their arrests and their family members are now very worried about their situation.
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. In the past 21 years, many healthy Falun Gong practitioners have been sent to mental hospitals, where they were injected with nerve-damaging drugs and tortured. In addition to the two Hunan practitioners, two more practitioners in Guangdong and Liaoning Provinces have been sent to mental hospitals after their arrests this year.
Mr. Lu Yongliang, 62, was arrested at home on May 27, 2019, while studying Falun Gong teachings with several other practitioners. His Falun Gong books, printer, DVD burner, and some informational materials about Falun Gong were confiscated.
The police submitted Mr. Lu’s case to the Lou District Procuratorate on July 2, 2019. The prosecutor twice rejected his case for insufficient evidence, before indicting him and forwarding his case to the Lou District Court on December 26.
Mr. Lu was detained at the Yueyang City Detention Center after his arrest and was denied visits. According to people familiar with his case, his family made a 600 yuan deposit to him every month between July and November to cover his living expenses, but the guards didn’t allow him to eat dinner or provide him with warm clothes as the weather became cold.
Mr. Lu was sent to the Yueyang Rehabilitation Psychiatric Hospital in early June 2020. When his family went to the detention center to inquire about his situation in recent weeks, the guards told them that Mr. Lu was doing well in the detention center, without telling them that he had been transferred away.
It’s reported that the Lou District Court recently transferred his case to the Pingjiang County Procuratorate, likely a result of the authorities’ consolidating Falun Gong cases in nearby regions to a single procuratorate and court.
Prior to his latest ordeal, Mr. Lu has been arrested and detained several times for upholding his faith in Falun Gong. More details were included in an earlier report: Mr. Lu Yongliang Exposes the Evil Crimes Committed by Yueyang City 610 Office and Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp in Hunan Province.
Ms. Guo Danxia, 73 and a retired accountant, was arrested at home on March 17, 2020. The police ransacked her home and shoved her during her arrest. She vomited as a result of police violence.
Ms. Guo was detained at Yueyang City No.2 Detention Center after her arrest and was sent to the Yueyang Rehabilitation Psychiatric Hospital in late June. Her case was also sent to the Pingjiang County Procuratorate around early July.
Similar to Mr. Lu, Ms. Guo has been repeatedly persecuted for her faith in the past 21 years, especially in the early years of the persecution when she was arrested once every year between 1999 and 2003.
Ms. Guo was first arrested on December 20, 1999, at Tiananmen Square when she went there to appeal for the rights to practice Falun Gong. The police hit her head against the window of the police car. While interrogating her, the officers handcuffed her, beat her with a stick, kicked her and hit her head against the wall. She passed out and was later thrown into a metal cage.
Ms. Guo was then sent back to Yueyang and detained for a month. She was forced to pay 500 yuan for her food expenses and extorted 6,900 yuan by the police.
She was arrested again in July 2000 and detained at Yueyang City Detention Center for more than 40 days. The police forced her to pay 3,000 yuan bail bonds.
Six months later, Ms. Guo was arrested again at home on January 16, 2001. The police didn’t even allow her to put on her shoes. She was detained at the Yueyang City Detention Center for three months and extorted an unknown amount of money.
Her next arrest was on February 6, 2002, when she was doing house chores. She was detained at the Yueyang City Detention Center six months this time. She held three hunger strikes to protest the persecution, for 7, 18 and 7 days, each time respectively. The guards force-fed her and once locked her on a death bed in a spread-eagle position for two days. She was extorted 5,000 yuan.
Ms. Guo was arrested again on August 10, 2003, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong related materials in front of the Yueyang City Government. She was first held in Hubin Detention Center and then transferred to Yueyang City No.1 Detention Center, before being given one year at Baimalong Forced Labor Camp.
Not long after she was released, she was arrested one more time in July 2005 for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was detained at the Yueyang Detention Center and extorted 4,500 yuan.
Ms. Guo’s repeated arrests and detention left her husband, a government official, in tremendous pressure. He beat and verbally abused her. Ms. Guo didn’t hold a grudge against him and still took good care of him after he later developed a terminal disease and became bedridden.
After her husband passed away, she gave their house and his property to his three children from a previous marriage, while leaving little for herself and their son.
Yueyang City, Hunan Province: 9 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested and 2 Harassed in Two Weeks