(Minghui.org) A 54-year-old woman in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province was sentenced to five years with a 20,000-yuan fine on April 7, 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Ms. Zhang Ping’s family learned in late November 2023 that the Lanzhou City Intermediate Court had rejected her appeal at an unknown date.
Ms. Zhang’s sentencing stemmed from her arrest on May 9, 2022. The Lanzhou City Police Department used drones to track her down to a bus station that day and dispatched officers to seize her there. They then raided her home and took her to the police department. Ms. Zhang was issued a formal arrest warrant on May 24 and moved to the Lanzhou City First Detention Center soon afterwards. The Chengguan District Procuratorate indicted her at an unknown date and forwarded her case to the Chengguan District Court on August 23, 2022.
Ms. Zhang stood trial on April 7, 2023, and judges Liu Dongyu, Teng Xiaoqiong and Ma Xinyan convicted her at the end of the hearing. The Lanzhou City Intermediate Court notified her family in late November 2023 that it had ruled to uphold her original verdict. It is unclear whether Ms. Zhang has been admitted to prison at the time of writing.
This is the second time that Ms. Zhang has been sentenced to five years for her faith. She was brutally tortured during her first five-year sentence and not allowed to return to work after she was released on April 22, 2010. Li Xiaoan, general manager of Hualong Securities, cited her prison sentence for her firing.
In addition to her first prison sentence, Ms. Zhang has also been arrested on numerous other occasions for practicing Falun Gong. Her mother, Ms. Long Lianqiu, who also took up Falun Gong in 1998, was arrested several times as well. Following her arrest in October 2002, Ms. Long was taken to a brainwashing center and forced to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. She then had a stroke and was hospitalized for more than 40 days. She was still paralyzed in one side of her body after she was discharged from the hospital. Her symptoms improved significantly after she resumed practicing Falun Gong and she was even able to take care of her self again. Yet her husband feared further persecution and threatened to divorce her if she did not stop practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Long couldn’t cope and died on September 11, 2005.
For more information about the persecution of Ms. Long and Ms. Zhang, see the following reports.
Related reports:
Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Zhang Ping from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province
Two Practitioners Sentenced to Long Terms in Gansu Province Women's Prison
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