(Minghui.org) A 72-year-old Changchun City, Jilin Province resident was taken to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on June 5, 2023 to serve a two-year term for practicing Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a traditional spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zang Hongyan was arrested on September 16, 2022. The Chaoyang District Court heard her case on February 7, 2023 and handed down the verdict on April 11.
Ms. Zang was found to have high blood pressure and symptoms of a stroke on January 19, 2023. She was transferred to the police hospital and held there until her prison transfer. Her family has not been allowed to visit her.
Past Persecution
Before taking up Falun Gong in 1996, Ms. Zang struggled with severe headaches, rheumatism, and swelling of her legs. Whenever she had a headache episode, she would hit her head against the wall or hit herself with a broom to alleviate the pain. All of her ailments disappeared shortly after she learned Falun Gong. She was full of energy and spent much time caring for her bedridden father-in-law.
Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Zang was arrested and detained over ten times. She was given four labor camp terms but was exempted from serving one term due to poor health. When she was not in detention, the police harassed her and raided her home numerous times.
Ms. Zang, her daughter and two other local Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing on July 20, 1999, the day the persecution started, to appeal for the right to practice their faith. After the police found out about their trip, they deceived Ms. Zang and her daughter into going to the police station on September 1, 1999 and held them at the Balibao Lockup and Changying Guest House for days.
Ms. Zang went to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong in the summer of 2000 and was arrested and detained at the Daguang Lockup for 15 days both times.
She was arrested again 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 poor health.
Not long after she was released, Ms. Zang returned to Beijing to appeal in June 2001 and was arrested. Not knowing where she came from, the police transferred her to a detention facility in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. They kept interrogating her about her name and address [Editor’s note: due to the CCP’s policy of implication, Falun Gong practitioners often do not give their names to the authorities in order to protect family members, friends, and co-workers]. When she refused to answer their questions, the police handcuffed her to the window rails and forced her to stand overnight.
While she was held in Shenyang, Ms. Zang joined other detained practitioners in doing the Falun Gong exercises every evening. The police retaliated by shocking them with electric batons the next morning, on their hands, heads, necks and feet. Ms. Zang’s neck was covered with blisters and scars, which took a long time to heal.
The police later confirmed Ms. Zang’s identity and took her to the Tiebei Detention Center in Changchun. The detention center guards forced everyone detained there to sleep on their sides, each holding the feet of the person next to them.
Two weeks later, Ms. Zang 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 time remaining from her previous term. She was incarcerated for a total of 20 months and released on February 15, 2003.
In late December 2003, the police followed Ms. Zang and arrested her at her relative’s home. She was given a third labor camp term and was released in March 2004 due to her health.
Ms. Zang was arrested on December 16, 2006 after she was reported by the residential committee director for distributing information materials about Falun Gong. 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 labor camp refused to admit her each time, due to her ailments.
Ms. Zang was arrested again on June 2, 2010 for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was released six days later.
Her next arrest was at a bus station in the summer of 2011, for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was first held in the police station for a week and then transferred to the Weizigou Lockup, where she was held for 15 days.
As she refused to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong, Ms. Zang was arrested yet another time, on February 7, 2012, and held at the Changchun City No. 3 Detention Center for a month. She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and the guards began to force-feed her a week later.
During one of the force-feeding sessions, Ms. Zang questioned the head of the detention center as to whether two local practitioners (Ms. Wang Shouhui and Ms. Li) died from their force-feedings. The detention center director retaliated by making her wear a painful torture instrument with the handcuffs and shackles linked together.
Torture illustration: handcuffs and shackles linked together
Ms. Zang was arrested one more time, on June 1, 2018, for doing the Falun Gong exercises outdoors. She was given 15 days at the Weizigou Lockup.
Related report:
71-year-old Woman Suffers Stroke in Custody, Gets Two Years for Her Faith Months Later
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