(Minghui.org) A Lanzhou City, Gansu Province resident has been taken to the Lanzhou Prison after losing an appeal against a three-year-and-two-month sentence for practicing Falun Gong. Mr. Jia Jianhuai’s family has since been denied visits with him and they are very worried about him, as the prison is notorious for torturing Falun Gong practitioners and several practitioners have been tortured to death over the years.
Mr. Jia, a 69-year-old retired employee of Gansu Geological Engineering Construction Company, and his wife Ms. Xiao Hongmei, distributed informational materials about Falun Gong on July 10, 2021, and were reported to the police. The police staked outside their home and arrested them two days later when they came back. Their home was also ransacked. Their Falun Gong books, printer, computer and other personal items were confiscated.
The couple was taken to the Jiayuguan Road Police Station at around 11 p.m. and interrogated until the next afternoon, after which they were forced to go through a physical examination. Ms. Xiao was transferred to the Yuzhong County Lockup four days later, while Mr. Jia was taken to the Xincheng Lockup after nine days at the police station. Both of them were released on July 26. Before allowing them to go home, the police and residential committee staff members ordered them to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong, but they both refused to comply.
On September 8, 2021, officer Ma Zhanxian of the Tuanjie New Village Police Station deceived Mr. Jia into going to his office, claiming that he was going to return his confiscated cell phone. Mr. Jia was arrested and put in criminal detention in the Honggu District Detention Center. He was transferred to the Lanzhou City No.3 Detention Center after his arrest was approved on September 24. Due to poor conditions in the detention center, he developed high blood pressure and was forced to take unknown drugs against his will.
Prosecutors Zhang Li and Bai Jun of the Chengguan District Procuratorate indicted Mr. Jia on November 18, 2021. The Chengguan District Court tried him on April 7, 2023. His lawyer entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
The presiding judge, Teng Xiaoqiong, announced on July 24, 2023 that Mr. Jia was sentenced to three years and two months with a 10,000-yuan fine. His lawyer filed an appeal with the Lanzhou City Intermediate Court on his behalf. On November 13, the lawyer received the appeals court’s ruling dated October 23. The presiding judge Ma Yan, judges Shao Junmei and Liu Xiaochun, judges’ assistant Bai Jipeng and court clerk Yang Yang signed the ruling to uphold Mr. Jia’s original verdict.
When Mr. Jia’s family visited him at the detention center in November 2023, he told them that the guards had been forcing him to take blood pressure drugs. They also performed frequent physical examinations on him. It’s not clear whether he was experiencing elevated blood pressure. He was transferred to the Lanzhou Prison shortly after.
Mr. Jia’s family went to the Lanzhou Prison to visit him in January 2024, but were turned away. They are very worried about him.
Prior to his latest sentencing, Mr. Jia has been repeatedly arrested for upholding his faith in the past 25 years. He was sentenced to three years in 2005 and almost died from the torture in Lanzhou Prison.
Deaths Due to Torture in Prison
Since the persecution began, Lanzhou Prison has been used as the main prison in Gansu Province to jail male Falun Gong practitioners. Practitioners there are brutally tortured for upholding their faith while living under harsh conditions and being forced to do heavy labor work.
The prison authorities have resorted to all means possible to inflict harm on practitioners who refused to renounce their faith, including forcing them to stand for long periods of time, working double shifts of night duties, giving them smaller meal portions, not allowing them to shop at the prison store, and depriving them of family visits or phone calls. Many inmates have witnessed the ruthless persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
Some inmates recalled how Mr. Wang Youjiang, an army major in the Lanzhou Military Region, had his teeth knocked out by other inmates. Mr. Wang served two prison terms in Lanzhou Prison, for ten and six years, and was subjected to brutal torture during both terms. He was persecuted to death in 2017 during his second prison term. Details for his ordeal are available at “Army Major Dies of Abuse While Serving Second Prison Term for His Faith.”
Mr. Jia Chunzhen, from Linxia County, was sentenced to four years for practicing Falun Gong. While held at the Lanzhou Prison, he was publicly humiliated and criticized several times at large meetings for refusing to renounce his faith. He was persecuted to death in the prison in March 2022, at age 76. His family saw injury marks on his neck and arms.
Mr. Yu Jinfang, a retired auto repair factory worker, was arrested on November 11, 2001 and sentenced to five years in early December 2002. Due to the torture in the prison, his body was covered with scabies. Pus and blood seeped from various parts of his body and he ran a persistent high fever. He was bedridden and could not eat or drink. He was emaciated, extremely weak and could not eat anything when he was released on November 13, 2006. He died two weeks later on November 25. He was 63.
Practitioners Currently Incarcerated in Lanzhou Prison
In addition to Mr. Jia, the following practitioners are also currently imprisoned in Lanzhou Prison:
- Mr. Li Jiankui, a 73-year-resident from Linxia County and a retired geologist from the Gansu Province Nuclear Department, was arrested on November 25, 2020. His prison term is unknown.
- Mr. Song Zongxiao, 72, from Linxia City, Gansu Province, was arrested in April 2020 and sentenced to three and a half years in late December 2020.
- Mr. Zhao Yujie, around 46 and a former employee of Qinghai Province Forestry Survey and Design Institute, and Mr. Chen Yongsen, around 65 and a retired employee of a photography company, were arrested in February 2020 and sentenced to 9.5 and 9 years respectively.
- Mr. Hong Liang, in his 50s, from Zhangjiachuan County, Gansu Province, was arrested on August 6, 2020 and sentenced to 4.5 years by the Zhangjiachuan County Court. He is currently held in the 2nd ward in the prison.
- Mr. Li Wenming, 59 and a former employee of Lanzhou Locomotive Factory, was arrested on August 23, 2022, shortly after he finished serving 19 years for raising awareness about the persecution. He was sentenced to five years in late February 2023.
- Mr. Zhou Junqi, a former employee of Shandan County Coking Plant, was arrested in May 2022 and sentenced to three years by the Ganzhou District Court on March 31, 2023. He appealed the verdict, but was rejected.
- Mr. Jiang Minghui, 50 and former deputy director of the Planning Department of Lanzhou Machinery Bureau, was arrested on August 4, 2021 and sentenced to six years on July 10, 2023.
Related Reports:
68-year-old Man Sentenced to 38 Months for Distributing Falun Gong Materials
The Hidden Persecution Inside Lanzhou City Third Detention Center
Falun Gong Practitioners Relentlessly Persecuted at Lanzhou Prison in Gansu Province
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