(Minghui.org) One more resident of Beilin District, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province targeted in a group arrest last year was recently confirmed to have been sentenced together with seven others months ago.
The group arrest on August 27, 2022, saw 13 Beilin residents seized for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
The eight sentenced Falun Gong practitioners were held at the Suihua City Detention Center following their arrests. The Hailun City Procuratorate approved their arrests on September 20, 2022. The Hailun City Court initially scheduled a joint hearing of their cases on December 28, 2022, but canceled it due to a local COVID-19 outbreak.
The judge later sentenced the practitioners to between 1.5 and 5 years in prison secretly without informing their families. The six female practitioners are currently serving time at the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Harbin), and the two male practitioners are at the Tailai Prison in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province.
The recently confirmed sentencing case concerned Ms. Li Yanhui, who was given two and a half years. The following seven practitioners’ sentencing had been previously reported:
- Ms. Guo Junxia was sentenced to 5 years. She once went on a hunger strike while still held at the Suihua City Detention Center.
- Mr. Zhang Lianqing was sentenced to 3.5 years, and his wife, Ms. Liu Guiying, was given 1.5 years. Their son, Mr. Zhang Fengming, 32, was sentenced to 1.5 years.
- Ms. Bai Yajuan, the owner of a laundry and tailor shop, was sentenced to three years. She was taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on March 30, 2023. Not long before her arrest, she had paid one year of rent for her store. Now her husband is under tremendous pressure to keep the shop running.
- Ms. Lang Cuixiang was given two and a half years.
- Ms. Zheng Lanqin, a retired teacher in her 70s, was released on bail after her arrest. She was taken back into custody at the Suihua City Detention Center in March 2023. She was sentenced to 1.5 years, and taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on April 21. She is currently experiencing declining health and blurred vision. Her family noted that she had to be helped by two people to walk to the meeting room when they visited her.
Group Arrests
The group arrests and sentencing were ordered by Zhang Junyong, the deputy secretary of the Suihua Municipal Party Committee, secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and principal of the Suihua Municipal Party School, who was appointed to the three positions in 2018.
The police had monitored and followed the practitioners since April 2022. Dubbed “Hundred Days of War,” the operation was to prevent the practitioners from speaking up during the Communist Party’s 20th Congress to be held in October. Once a practitioner was found distributing truth-clarification materials, the police would set up additional surveillance of him or her in order to discover and target all practitioners who had contact with them.
A Family of Three
The Zhang family was followed by the police while putting up posters about Falun Gong. The police arrested them after they returned home.
Four Members of an Extended Family
After Ms. Bai was arrested, the police also took her father, husband, and aunt, Ms. Zhu Xiuhua, to the police station for interrogation. All three family members of Ms. Bai were released the same day. Ms. Bai’s father and husband do not practice Falun Gong.
Mother Dies One Month After Daughter’s Arrest
Ms. Liu Lianbo fell into a coma after being taken to the police station and was taken to a hospital. She was released in the evening. Ms. Liu’s 83-year-old mother was also on the police’s list to be arrested. As the police didn’t find any Falun Gong-related materials in her residence, they left without arresting her. But terrified by the raid, she passed away a month later.
Seven Other Practitioners
Seven other practitioners were also arrested on the same day, including the aforementioned Ms. Zheng, Ms. Guo, Ms. Liang, and Ms. Li, as well as Ms. Liu Xiaomin, Ms. Wang Qiuyan, and Ms. Yao Juan. The latter three were held at the Suihua City Lockup and released 15 days later. Ms. Zheng was released on bail but taken back into custody in March 2023.
Related Reports:
Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province: 15 Arrested in One Day, 7 Already Sentenced
Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province: At Least Eleven Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day
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