71-year-old Woman Suffers Stroke in Custody, Gets Two Years for Her Faith Months Later

(Minghui.org) An ailing 71-year-old woman in Changchun City, Jilin Province, was sentenced to two years in prison on April 11, 2023, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Zang Hongyan was arrested on September 16, 2022, one month before the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress. She was held at a COVID-19 quarantine center. The Chaoyang District Procuratorate indicted her and moved her case to the Chaoyang District Court in January 2023.

On January 19, Ms. Zang was found to have high blood pressure and symptoms of a stroke. She was transferred to the police hospital, where she continues to be held, and is denied family visits.

The Chaoyang District Court heard her case on February 7 and handed down the verdict on April 11.

Before she was indicted, her family made repeated requests to hire a lawyer to defend her, but the presiding judge, Jiang Hui, found all kinds of excuses to turn them down. He promised to inform them of her hearing, but he never did. Even on the day of the hearing, Jiang lied when Ms. Zang’s family defender went to the court to submit paperwork to represent her. Instead of telling the family defender about the hearing, Jiang said it would take a few more months before he could schedule one.

Jiang denied the family defender’s request to represent her in court but said they could hire a local lawyer (though not an out-of-province lawyer). The lawyer they hired recently found out about Ms. Zang’s sentencing when he visited her.

Past Persecution

Over the past 24 years of the persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Zang has been arrested and detained over ten times. She was given four labor camp terms but was exempted from serving one term due to her poor health. When she was not in detention, the police harassed her and raided her home numerous times.

Ms. Zang was arrested with her daughter on September 1, 1999, and detained for several days. She went to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong in the summer of 2000 and was arrested and detained for 15 days both times.

Ms. Zang was arrested in 2000 for collecting signatures on a petition calling for an end to the persecution. After 15 days at the Daguang Lockup, she was given one year in Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She was released six months early due to her health.

Ms. Zang went to Beijing again to appeal in June 2001. The police shocked her with electric batons and she was given a second term in Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp. Because she refused to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong, the authorities extended her term and ordered her to finish serving the remaining time from her previous term. She was incarcerated for a total of 20 months and released on February 15, 2003.

The police followed Ms. Zang and arrested her at her relative’s home in late December 2003. She was given a third labor camp term and was released in March 2004 due to her health.

For distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, Ms. Zang was reported by the residential committee director and arrested on December 16, 2006. She was held in the Changchun City No.3 Detention Center for a month and given a fourth term in Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp. The police made three attempts to incarcerate her, but the guards denied her admission all three times due to her ailments.

Ms. Zang was arrested four more times, on June 2, 2010, in the summer of 2011, on February 7, 2012, and on June 1, 2018, for distributing Falun Gong materials or talking to people about Falun Gong.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Zhuang Jun (庄军), president of the Chaoyang District Court: [phone], [phone]Jiang Hui (姜辉), judge, Chaoyang District Court: [phone], [phone]Lyu Peng (吕芃), president of the Chaoyang District Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]Liu Lin (柳林), prosecutorZhang Yong (张勇), chief of Changjiu Road Police Station: [phone]Wang Zihang (王子航), deputy chief of Changjiu Road Police Station: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)