(Clearwisdom.net) Since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, Ms. Zhang Lianzhi had been sent to a brainwashing center, arrested, detained and sentenced to forced labor several times. On November 11, 2004, after seven months of detention, the Luannan County Court sentenced her to four years in prison. She was sent to Baoding City Prison and later to the Luquan Women's Prison in Shijiazhuang City.

Ms. Zhang Lianzhi, 54, was an employee of the Bencheng Town Neighborhood Community Office in Luannan County. Her home address is 156 Dianchang Road, Luannan County.

After the persecution began, officials from the Luannan County Politics and Law Committee, the Luannan Count 610 Office and the Luannan County Police Department jointly established a brainwashing center. Ms. Zhang was forced to attend brainwashing sessions three times, totaling more than two months.

Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for the end of Falun Gong persecution in December 2000. Le Shumin, chief of the Luannan County Police Department Politics and Security Section, brought her back and took her to a detention center.

Ms. Zhang had been detained at detention centers six times, serving a total of sixteen and a half months.

On January 23, 2001, the night before Chinese New Year's Day, Le Shumin and other officials detained her again and took her to the Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City for a year of forced labor.

At around 3:00 a.m. on April 20, 2004, Le Shumin and several other police officials came to Ms. Zhang's home and confiscated her computer, printer, copier, recorder and some Falun Gong books. They arrested Ms. Zhang and detained her at the Luannan County Detention Center for seven months. On November 11, 2004, she was sentenced to four years in prison and taken to Baoding City Prison, and later to the Luquan Women's Prison.

During her seven-month incarceration at the detention center, Ms. Zhang was brutally tortured. The officers tied her with the soaked hemp rope. She was choked and lost consciousness. She was handcuffed and shackled. Her handcuffs were tied to her shackles around the clock so she had to bend her waist all the time. This torture lasted more than a month, and her wrists and ankles were severely swollen. She was forced to stand for several hours. When she held hunger strikes to protest the persecution, she was brutally force-fed, and the feeding tube was left inside her body between feedings and caused internal bleeding.

During the first hearing, the judge refused to allow Ms. Zhang's family to speak in her defense. But Le Shumin was there to present falsified evidence.

Ms. Zhang appealed to the Tangshan City Intermediate Court. In November 2004, the intermediate court rejected her appeal and kept the original sentence despite her presenting significant facts.

In December 2004, one month after Ms. Zhang's sentencing, she was dismissed from her job. She no longer had any income.