(Minghui.org) Shortly after a husband and wife were sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong, the wife suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in detention around mid-June 2021 and has been taken to a hospital for emergency treatment. It’s not clear whether or not Ms. Zhang Lixin’s condition has stabilized.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang and Mr. Bai Yufu, both 67 and natives of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, were arrested on December 2, 2019, in Zhangwu County, Liaoning Province (about 360 miles from Daqing), where they had been hiding to avoid being arrested by the Daqing police.
Mr. Bai was held in the Zhangwu County Detention Center and Ms. Zhang in the Heituozi Detention Center (also known as Xindi Detention Center) in Fuxin City, Liaoning Province. When their family members went to the local police station to demand their release, one officer threatened to sentence them to heavy terms.
Both Mr. Bai and Ms. Zhang were tried by the Zhangwu County Court via a video conference on March 5, 2021. On March 23, the judge sentenced Mr. Bai to six years in prison and Ms. Zhang to four years.
Over the past 22 years of the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Bai, a former security director, and Ms. Zhang, who used to work for a heating company, have been arrested and incarcerated repeatedly for upholding their faith.
Husband Fired, Wife Given One Year of Forced Labor
Both of them were arrested on December 5, 2000, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Even though Mr. Bai was released the next day, he was fired from his job and forced to take a buyout. Ms. Zhang was given one year at Harbin Drug Rehab Forced Labor Camp on January 18, 2001, after being detained for 38 days.
Husband’s Two-year Labor Camp Term
Officers broke into the couple’s home on September 23, 2005, and arrested them. At the Donghu Police Station, one of them hit Ms. Zhang in the chest, causing her chest to swell and bruise. Because she refused to wear the inmate’s uniform or answer roll call after being taken to the Daqing City Detention Center in the afternoon, the guards chained her in a metal chair. She was also interrogated.
Ms. Zhang was released on September 30, but Mr. Bai remained in custody in Longfeng Detention Center and was force-fed. The police gave him two years of forced labor on October 25, 2005. He was held in the Daqing Forced Labor Camp for six months and before being transferred to the Suihua Forced Labor Camp to finish the rest of his term. In the labor camp, he was forced to work more than ten hours a day, making car seat cushions, packaging toothpicks, and making clothes. The guards beat and verbally abused him if he couldn’t finish his quota for the day. Sometimes he was put in solitary confinement.
Because of the relentless ill-treatment, Mr. Bai developed high blood pressure (160/100 mmHg), and nearly 29 of his teeth loosened and fell out, making it very difficult for him to eat.
More of Ms. Zhang’s Previous Arrests
In addition to Ms. Zhang’s above-mentioned labor camp term, she was arrested on July 20, 1999, at the Daqing Train Station when she was on her way to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was held in custody for a day and then released. The police summoned her a few more times after that and held her in custody for another night.
Ms. Zhang went to Beijing again on May 9, 2000, to appeal for Falun Gong. She was beaten in Beijing, taken back to Daqing, and detained for two weeks.
Only weeks after she was released, she was arrested again on June 18, 2000, for doing the Falun Gong exercises in public and taken to the Daqing City Detention Center. More than 20 female Falun Gong practitioners shared a small room. Sometimes the guards forced them to stand in a row in just their underwear and then beat and verbally abused them.
On July 23, Ms. Zhang was transferred to the Sartu District Lockup and held there for another month. Shortly after she was released on August 23, she was arrested one more time and held in a brainwashing center for a month.
Ms. Zhang was riding home on her bike on October 28, 2011, when Feng Haibo of the Daqing Domestic Security Office and Zou Shaogang of the Donghu Police Station, who had been waiting outside her neighborhood, arrested her.
The police ransacked her home and confiscated six printers, two computers, all her Falun Gong books, photos of Falun Gong’s founder, six MP3s, two portable hard drives, two cellphones, dozens of flash drives, tools to make books, and 1,500 yuan in cash. Even her cellphone charger wasn’t spared.
After the police took Ms. Zhang away, her 82-year-old, bedridden mother, who was living with her and relied on her for care, was left at home on her own, as Mr. Bai happened to be out of town and their two daughters were either attending college in another city or living outside of China.
That evening, her mother relieved herself in her pants. She tried to clean herself, only to make it worse. She called the property management for help. They came to check on her but were reluctant to help her change clothes or bedding. At the request of property management, the police finally agreed to release Ms. Zhang so she could take care of her mother.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Xindi Detention Center: +86-418-2960138, +86-418-2292153Che Yin (车胤), head of the detention center: +86-13804181321, +86-15641879588Sun Liran (孙俪然), director of the women’s ward: +86-13470367212
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