(Clearwisdom.net) At least 64 Falun Gong practitioners from Tangshan City, Hebei Province have been illegally sentenced to prison since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999. Since 2007, Party officials in Tangshan have launched rounds of arrests and sentenced another 46 practitioners to prison, in addition to 76 practitioners who were sent to forced labor camps. Many practitioners are still held at various detention centers and custody centers in Tangshan, and 14 practitioners are held in detention centers and brainwashing centers in the small Qianan City alone. Some have already been held for 18 months.
Detention of Elderly, Children and Handicapped
Among the illegally detained practitioners, there are people in their seventies and also a four-year-old child. Practitioner Mr. Wu Junzhuang from Tanghai, who is in his seventies was arrested on September 25, 2007. The court secretly sentenced three practitioners, including Mr. Wu, to three-and-a-half years in prison in December 2007. Mr. Wu was taken to Division 5 of Jidong Prison, where he was savagely tortured until he developed multiple illnesses. As a result, he became emaciated and bedridden. The prison officials told his family to pick him up on January 8, 2009, in order to shirk responsibility for his possible death.
Seventy six year-old Ms. Li Chunhua from Tangshan, whose hometown is Wenzhuang, Zunhua City, was illegally arrested at home at noon on July 10, 2008. Her home was ransacked.
Zunhua City 610 Office agents and other Party officials arrested Ms. Cheng Yanshuang and her four-year-old daughter at 10:30 p.m. on July 29, 2008, and took her to Zunhua Brainwashing Center. Ms. Cheng took her daughter and left the center safely, but they have been living in exile ever since to avoid being illegally arrested.
Mr. Niu Jiming, a 46-year-old severely handicapped practitioner who worked as a tricycle driver in Fengrun District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was taken to Jidong Prison in Tangshan City on November 19, 2008. The court illegally sentenced him to three-and-a-half years in prison only because his customers Chen Lijuan and Jin Shuxia carried Falun Gong flyers and DVDs. Niu Jiming lived at Room 8 of the No. 30 Building at the Railroad Dormitory in Fengrun District, Tangshan City. His left leg was amputated and his right leg is handicapped, and he drives a taxi-tricycle especially made for the handicap to make a living.
Mr. Li Guocai, 64, and his wife Zhang Zongsu, 61, are both retirees from the No. 4 Division of No. 2 Tangshan Construction Bureau. Ms. Zhang Zongsu was known among acquaintances for her numerous chronic illnesses, but she quickly regained complete health after she began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. Plainclothes police officers arrested the couple at home in April 2007 and took them to Diaoyutai Police Station. Lubei Court in Tangshan sentenced Zhang Zongsu to seven years in prison and Li Guocai to four years in prison in October 2007. Li Guocai was taken to Jidong Prison. Zhang Zongsu was secretly taken to Shijiazhuang Women's Prison in April 2008 and was forced to do slave labor from 6:00 a.m. Until 8:00 p.m., and sometimes as late as 10:00 p.m. After a year of brutal torture at the prison, Zhang Zongsu's hair had turned white, when her family saw her in 2009.
Mr. Bi Junqing, 56, works at Gezhuang Mine in Kailuan, Tangshan City. His wife, Wang Shouping, 55, is a retiree from Guye District Grain Center. Officers from Dongbei District Police Department in Zhaogezhuang mining area, Guye District ransacked Bi Junqing's home on September 11, 2007. They arrested Bi Junqing, his wife and practitioner Li who was visiting the couple at the time. They took many private belongings.
Guye District Court in Tangshan City held a secret trial on March 24, 2008, without notifying any family members, and sentenced Bi Junqing to eight years in prison, and Wang Shouping to seven years in prison. Bi Junqing is now held at Jidong Prison, and Wang Shouping is held at Luquan Women's Prison in Shijiazhuang City. Her hair has turned completely white and she walks slowly due to her weakened condition.
Arrest of Five Family Members--Police Steal Cash and Car
A group of officers from Lubei Police Department and Diaoyutai Police Station led by Chen Hong, the head of Lubei District Domestic Security Division, went to the home of Mr. He Yixing and his wife Zhang Yueqin at the Tangshan Electricity Plant Dormitory at 8:00 a.m. on July 10, 2008. They broke the lock but still could not open the door. At 9:00 a.m., two fire trucks arrived and the police climbed up to the sixth floor via ladders. They smashed windows opening southward and northward and broke inside. They ransacked the home and arrested the couple. The police also arrested He Yixing's younger daughter He Yan and her husband Sun Fengli. They took 600,000 yuan in cash from the home and drove away the couple's two privately-owned cars. When the couple's older daughter He Dan asked for the 600,000 yuan back and asked the information about her parents, the police detained her for 15 days.
Ms. He Yan is now being held at Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan. She is experiencing symptoms of heart disease and relies on a pacemaker. Her family has applied for medical parole many times but has been continually denied. The Tangshan Court has illegally sentenced He Yixing to seven years in prison, Zhang Yueqin to five years in prison, and Sun Fengli to three years in prison. The family has appealed at Tangshan Intermediate Court, which has recently notified relatives that the original verdicts are to be upheld.
Practitioners Ning Yongxiu and Sun Cuiqing from Tanghai County, Tangshan City were arrested on July 26, 2008 and taken to Shilihai Border Defense Police Station. Ning Yongxiu suffered a relapse of heart disease due to brutal torture. Officials at Tanghai County Police Department wanted to avoid responsibility, and let her go home after extorting 5,000 yuan from her. Tanghai County Court subsequently secretly sentenced Sun Cuiqing to four years in prison. Sun Cuiqing's daughter Ning Dandan, 25, had recently graduated from college, and tried to visit her mother at Tanghai Detention Center. The officials there forbade her from meeting her mother, and Li Fuguo and other police officers later ransacked her home and arrested Ning Dandan because Li Fuguo was afraid that Ning Dandan was going to sue him. Ning Dandan was directly sent to Kaiping Forced Labor Camp to be held for two years after being held at the detention center for 15 days. Sun Cuiqing was sent to Shijiazhuang Women's Prison on April 1, 2009.
Ms. Chuai Cuijun and Ms. Chai Junxia, both from Qianxi County, are cousins. They married two brothers--Mr. Chuai Zhiwu and Mr. Chuai Zhigang. Zhu Zhengang, head of the Qianxi Domestic Security Division, and Zhang Yinbo from Chengguan Police Station led a group of police officers to ransack Chai Junxia's home at 11:00 p.m. on July 18, 2007. Eight days later, Zhang Yinbo suffered a violent and sudden death although he was very healthy before and had no signs of illness. It is believed that he received karmic retribution for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Qianxi County Court held a trial for Chai Junxia on the morning of January 7, 2008, after she had been held for nearly six months. During the show trial, Chai Junxia explained what Falun Gong is, how Falun Gong is embraced around the world, and how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has brutally persecuted Falun Gong to the extent that they harvest organs from living practitioners. She also explained that as a result, the heavens are eliminating the CCP. She exposed the Party's crimes including the illegal sentencing of her cousin Chuai Cuijun and the slave labor she was forced to perform.
Ms. Chai Junxia demanded at the hearing that all court officials who are CCP members be excluded from the trial because the persecution was launched by the Chinese Communist Party and it is impossible for Party members to conduct a fair trial. Over the past few years, Ms. Chai Junxia and her family's home has been ransacked five times, and they have been arrested six times. Five members of her family have been illegally detained. Ms. Chai Junxia and Ms. Chuai Cuijun have been sentenced to four years and five years in prison, and they are now being held at Shijiazhuang Women's Prison. Their co-owned grocery shop, which they have diligently managed for several years, has closed due to their arrest.
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