(Minghui.org) Three Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province, residents, were recently sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong. Ms. Gu Jiumei, 53, and Ms. Liang Guijuan, 47, were each given seven years and Ms. Zhang Shufen, 62, was sentenced to three years.
The three practitioners were arrested by officers of the Taian Police Station on October 17, 2023. Ms. Liang was arrested at her workplace, the Weijin Grain Depot. Ms. Gu was deceived into going to her previous workplace, the Yugui Garden Properties, and was arrested there. Ms. Zhang was seized at her rental place in Dongfeng County, only one month after she moved there to avoid ongoing police monitoring. Her arrest left her bedridden husband in a dire situation.
The Longshan District Court held a hearing of their joint case on March 26, 2024, and convicted them on April 16.
Before their latest sentencing, all three practitioners have been repeatedly targeted in the past 25 years for their faith.
Ms. Gu, a native of Dongliao County, Jilin Province, took up Falun Gong in November 1998. Her heart condition, sciatica and other physical conditions soon disappeared.
Ms. Gu was arrested at home by officers of the Weijin Township Police Station around 6 p.m. on January 18, 2008. Her home was ransacked. She was then taken to the Liaoyuan City Detention Center, where the police took turns interrogating her. On the fifth day, she was admitted to the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp to serve a one-year term. She was forced to work without pay and subjected to various torture methods.
Guard Jia Hongyan slapped Ms. Gu in the face several times one afternoon in late April 2009 as she refused to renounce Falun Gong. Her face became swollen but Jia still shocked her face, mouth, and chest with an electric baton for over one hour.
Ms. Gu’s term was extended by 28 days as she remained firm in practicing Falun Gong. After she was released on February 16, 2009, the police and agents of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee continued to harass her every year, leaving her family living in fear every day.
Ms. Gu was arrested again on November 19, 2014, after being reported for studying Falun Gong books with another practitioner at home. All of her Falun Gong books were confiscated. She was interrogated at the police station and taken to the Liaoyuan City Detention Center in the evening to serve a ten-day detention.
Ms. Zhang began to practice Falun Gong in October 1999 and soon recovered from a severe heart problem. She was arrested multiple times, had her home ransacked, and had her salary suspended. During one detention, she was restrained on a tiger bench, shocked with electric batons and force-fed. While serving a labor camp term, she was forced to work without pay and deprived of sleep for not renouncing Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again on June 5, 2019, for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to 1.5 years by the Longshan District Court on October 17, 2019, and taken to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on November 5. She was released in April 2021.
Ms. Liang was arrested on September 3, 2016, and had her home ransacked. Her manager at work harassed her on September 20, 2022, prior to the communist regime’s 20th Party Congress. Even her husband, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, was also harassed by the local community workers. He received another call from the police on October 27, 2022, and asked about Ms. Liang’s number.
Two Jilin Women Sentenced to Prison for Their Faith, Family Threatened by Police