(Minghui.org) It’s recently been confirmed by Minghui.org that a woman in Changchun City, Jilin Province, has been sentenced to three years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Chunjie, 59, was arrested at home on February 19, 2023, by officers of the Erdao District Domestic Security Office and the Dongzhan Police Station. She was first given 15 days of administrative detention at the Changchun City Lockup and then transferred to the Changchun City No.4 Detention Center under criminal detention. The Chaoyang District Procuratorate approved her arrest in early April and later indicted her. She was recently sentenced by the Chaoyang District Court, but details about her indictment, trial, and sentencing aren’t clear.
Ms. Zhang has appealed to the Changchun City Intermediate Court and is awaiting the result in the Changchun City No.4 Detention Center.
Past Persecution
Ms. Zhang used to be plagued with trigeminal neuralgia, cholecystitis, and a herinated disc. All her ailments disappeared shortly after she began to practice Falun Gong in January 1999. When the persecution started six months later, she remained firm in her faith and was arrested several times and given two labor camp terms.
When the CCP officially launched the persecution on July 20, 1999, Ms. Zhang traveled overnight by train from her previous residence in Dehui City (under the jurisdiction of Changchun, which is about 80 miles away) to the provincial government in Changchun, hoping to clarify the facts about Falun Gong and appeal for the right to continue practicing her faith.
Before she reached her destination, she was arrested and held in the People’s Liberation Army Armored Forces Technical College. She was taken back to Dehui in the evening and released around 9 p.m.
Police officer Li Zhaode visited Ms. Zhang on the evening of September 29, 1999, and tried to make her promise not to go to Beijing to appeal on October 1, the 50th anniversary since the CCP seized power in 1949. When Ms. Zhang refused to comply, Li arrested her and held her in Dehui City Lockup for 15 days.
Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal in March 2000 and was arrested outside of the National Appeals Office by police officers from Changchun. She was taken back to Dehui and detained. She held a hunger strike to protest and was released two weeks later.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again in April 2000. At the Dehui City Police Department, she was interrogated for three hours. Four officers handcuffed her behind her back and then lifted her arms up. They also slapped her in the face and head with large binders. She was bleeding from her mouth and nose. They continued until she almost passed out. She held a hunger strike again and was released 13 days later.
While she was putting up banners with information about Falun Gong on the evening of November 24, 2001, Hongqi Police Station officers chased her and shot at her. Although she wasn’t hit, she was soon arrested. When she held a hunger strike in the Dehui City Detention Center, guard Yang Yanqiu ordered the inmates to grab her by her hair and hit her head against the wall. She lost hunks of hair and it felt as if her scalp had pulled away from her skull.
On December 8, 2001, Ms. Zhang was transferred to the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Changchun to serve a one-year term. She was forced to work from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. or later. Because she refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards forced her to carry 132-pound bags of beans to the fifth floor several times a day. In particular, guard Jia Hongyan forced her to run laps while carrying the beans in June 2002. She was so exhausted she couldn’t move afterwards.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again on July 18, 2009, and given another 1.5-year term in Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp after 15 days of detention.
Ms. Zhang, her husband, mother, and mother-in-law went to local parks to talk to people about Falun Gong on June 2, 2014, and were reported. While her mother and mother-in-law were soon released, Ms. Zhang and her husband were each detained for 15 days. Their home was ransacked.
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