(Minghui.org) Seven Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province residents were scheduled to appear in Ranghulu District Court on December 29, 2020, for their faith in Falun Gong. It remains to be investigated whether the hearing took place.
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.
The seven practitioners were arrested on April 7 and 8, 2020, respectively, while making phone calls to the public about how the Chinese communist regime has been using similar tactics from the persecution of their faith to cover up the coronavirus epidemic.
Mr. Li Lizhuang and Mr. Huo Xiaohui were held at the Zhaozhou Detention Center. The other female practitioners, including Ms. Tang Zhuyin, Ms. Ding Yan (Mr. Huo’s wife), Ms. Jiao Qihua, Ms. Li Yanqing, and Ms. Zhao Lihua, were detained at the Daqing City No.2 Detention Center.
Using the coronavirus epidemic as an excuse, the police refused to disclose the practitioners’ detention locations to their families, preventing their families from visiting or sending in money or clothes.
Ms. Tang, a retiree from the Harbin Tungsten Platinum Material Factory in her 70s, took up Falun Gong in 1995. She was known to be kind and hardworking. In September 1999, she was arrested for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Guards at the Chaoyang District Detention Center in Beijing tortured her and poured cold water onto her head.
Ms. Tang was given two labor camps in April 2001 and August 2006, for a total of three and a half years. At Wanjia Forced Labor Camp, the guards tied her legs, hung her up and shocked her head, arms and hands with electric batons. The injuries on her left arm and hand took a long time to recover. The guards said to her, “This is an order from above. We are merely their tools. If you want to seek justice, you need to talk to Jiang Zemin (the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution in 1999). This is our job and we don’t have a choice.”
Mr. Li, a 47-year-old former orthopedic surgeon, was arrested on the street on April 8. For upholding his faith, he was fired from his hospital and given two labor camp terms and one prison term for a total of six and a half years. He suffered appalling torture and sexual assault in custody and had to sell clothes on the street to make a living after he was released.
Ms. Li, 56, is a retiree from the Heilongjiang Agricultural Reclamation Economic Research Institute. For filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, she was harassed in August and September 2015 and arrested on October 28, 2015, followed by 15 days of detention.
Ms. Ding, 60, is a retired nurse. Her husband, Mr. Huo, 61, is a retired director of the Harbin Bearing Factory Company. The couple were arrested in the hallway of their apartment building when they went out around 1 p.m. on April 8. The police ransacked their home and confiscated their Falun Gong books and a laptop. One of Ms. Ding’s relatives happened to stop by during the raid and was questioned by the police, who claimed that they were from the provincial Public Security Bureau and “enforcing the law.”
Ms. Jiao, 60, is also a retired employee of the Harbin Bearing Factory Company. She began to practice Falun Gong less than a year ago.
Ms. Zhao, 59, credits Falun Gong for curing her headache and insomnia, as well as giving her the strength to pull through after her parents, son and sister passed away one after another and her husband divorced her.
Harbin, Heilongjiang Province: Twelve Arrested in Same District in Two Days, Six Face Prosecution