(Minghui.org) A Hailin City, Heilongjiang Province resident was recently taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison to serve a 9.5-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Fu Zhaocui, 54, was arrested on June 10, 2021, together with Mr. Guo Libin and his wife Ms. Chen Xitao, by officers of the Hailin City Domestic Security Office. While the couple was kept in custody, Ms. Fu was denied admission by the local detention center and released on bail. Before she was let go, she was interrogated by officers Ding Yuhua, Zhang and Pan Ming for three hours. She refused to answer any questions.
The police arrested Ms. Fu again on July 10 and took her to the Hailin City Procuratorate, which approved her arrest. She was released on bail again on the same day.
The police submitted the three practitioners’ case to the Hailin City Procuratorate on September 16. They were indicted by prosecutor Ma Yongxin around October 18. Judge Jiang Xinkun of the Hailin City Court was assigned to handle their case.
The court initially scheduled a hearing for December 16, but later postponed it to December 23, 2021. Ms. Fu was sentenced to 9.5 years with a 10,000-yuan fine. Mr. Guo and Ms. Chen were each given 6.5 years with a 5,000-yuan fine. Ms. Fu appealed with the Mudanjiang City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict.
Due to Ms. Fu’s poor health, she was put under house arrest after her sentencing. Officers of the Hailin City Domestic Security Office and court staff members arrested her and took her to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Mudanjiang Medical College (also known as the Mudanjiang Police Hospital) on June 5, 2023. She was transferred to the Mudanjiang City Detention Center on July 1, before being taken to the prison.
Two Decades of Persecution
Ms. Fu used to work as a head nurse at the Hailin City Chinese Medicine Hospital. In the past 24 years of persecution, Ms. Fu, her father Mr. Fu Yingduo, mother Ms. Tang Yuhua and younger brother Mr. Fu Pengchong have been repeatedly targeted for their shared faith. She lost her job and served three years in prison, before receiving the latest heavy term. Her father passed away in 2007, after succumbing to the torture during his own prison term and mental pressure from subsequent harassment and arrests of Ms. Fu.
Ms. Fu went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong shortly after the onset of the persecution in July 1999. She was demoted from being the head nurse to a regular nurse.
Ms. Fu, her parents and brother were arrested one after another in September 1999 by the local police. The police chief grabbed her mother’s hair and hit her head against the wall. When Ms. Fu tried to stop the police, he also grabbed her hair and threw her out. The family of four were all transferred to a detention center shortly after.
The family were arrested again on January 25, 2002 by the Hailin City Domestic Security Office. The two siblings were tied up in excruciating positions. When Ms. Fu held a hunger strike to protest the persecution in the detention center, the guards ordered the inmates to force feed her. She refused to comply and was held in a chair by two inmates. They then pried open her mouth with a mouth-opener and poured half-cooked corn meal with lots of salt into her mouth. As she struggled, the corn meal spilled all over her body. The police watched the entire process and took photos of her.
During her detention, the Discipline Inspection Commission of the local health bureau forced her hospital to fire her.
Ms. Fu’s father and brother were sentenced to three and five years at the Mudanjiang Prison, respectively, in September 2002. A year later, in September 2003, Ms. Fu and her mother were each sentenced to three years in Harbin Women’s Prison.
Before mother and daughter were transferred to the prison, the detention center ordered them to pay a prison admission fee. When they refused to comply, the deputy director of the detention center retaliated by throwing away their luggage, leaving them with no clothes to change into and no daily necessities to use upon arrival at the prison.
Ms. Fu was subjected to various kinds of torture while in the prison. Because she refused to wear the inmate uniform, the head guard ordered his subordinates to handcuff her to the rail in the bathroom and instigated the inmates to hit her in the eyes, breasts and knees. They also grabbed her hair and hit her head against the heating pipes.
In January 2005, Ms. Fu and her parents were released after serving their terms.
Ms. Fu was arrested again on December 25, 2005. Because of her poor health, she was released five days later, after the police had extorted 5,000 yuan from her family. The police still didn’t leave her alone, but repeatedly harassed her at home afterwards.
Ms. Fu was arrested another time in 2006 when she went out for groceries. The police took her to the police hospital for an examination and then released her, without providing any explanation for the arrest.
Ms. Fu’s father struggled with declining health after he was released. The mental distress from non-stop harassment and the arrests of Ms. Fu caused his condition to continue deteriorating. He passed away on May 22, 2007, four months after his son was released from prison.
On the third day of her father’s passing, Ms. Fu was arrested by the Hailin City No.2 Police Station and detained at the Railroad Detention Center in Mudanjiang, which has jurisdiction over Hailin. She was later given two years of forced labor by the Mudanjiang Railroad Police Department. Also due to her poor health, the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Center refused to admit her and she was taken back to the Mudanjiang Railroad Detention Center. The police and community officers continued to harass Ms. Fu after she was released in July 2007 to serve time at home.
Ms. Fu’s brother was arrested again by officers of Hailin City Domestic Security Office on June 19, 2014. As instructed by the Hailin City 610 Office, an extra-legal agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, the Hailin City Court sentenced him to another 3.5 years in Tailai Prison.
Related reports:
Three Heilongjiang Residents, Including a Married Couple, Given Heavy Terms for Their Faith
Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province: 28 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day
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