(Minghui.org) A 68-year-old woman in Xinbin Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province, was sentenced to three and a half years on March 20, 2024 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Jiang Zhihui, of Korean ethnicity, was arrested around 4 p.m. on December 2, 2023, after she was reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. The arresting officers from the Xinbin Town Police Station in Xinbin Manchu Autonomous County raided her home and placed her in criminal detention at the Fushun City Detention Center. Fushun City oversees Xinbin Manchu Autonomous County.
The Shuncheng District Court in Fushun City sentenced Ms. Jiang on March 20, 2024, but details of her indictment and trial remain to be investigated.
This is not the first time that Ms. Jiang has been targeted for her faith. She previously served one year of forced labor and four years in prison.
She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on September 8, 1999 and was arrested. After she was taken back to Liaoning Province, she was put in a brainwashing center and ordered to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply and was threatened with labor camp detention. Her husband was forced to pay 3,000 yuan and sign a statement on her behalf to stop practicing Falun Gong.
After Ms. Jiang was released, her husband stopped her from going out for fear she would go to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Gong or talk to other practitioners. Because the authorities threatened to get him implicated for his wife’s faith, he beat her every night after he returned from work. He often showered her with kicks and punches, and whipped her with his belt.
Ms. Jiang was unable to sleep for seven straight nights. She suffered a mental breakdown and was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Ms. Jiang resumed practicing Falun Gong in the second half of 2007 and soon made a full recovery. Grateful for Falun Gong, she began raising awareness of the persecution again. She was arrested on June 15, 2009 after she was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to one year of forced labor at the Masanjia Labor Camp, where she was tortured and forced to write statements to renounce Falun Gong.
The Xinbin Town Police Station arrested Ms. Jiang again on October 17, 2010 and confiscated her Falun Gong books. Chief Sun Changfa extorted 3,000 yuan from her family before releasing her. He did not issue a receipt as required by law.
Ms. Jiang was arrested on December 10, 2013 after she was reported for distributing calendars bearing Falun Gong messages. She was sentenced to four years and brutally tortured at the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison.
Several officers were staked outside Ms. Jiang’s home on the night of April 7, 2022. They arrested her and the two practitioners who came to visit her. They also raided her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books. The three practitioners were released hours later.