(Minghui.org) On April 15, 2012, police officers from Fushun City arrested over 20 Falun Gong practitioners in Xinbin County. Nine of them were sentenced.

Practitioner Mr. Zhao Jiwei was sentenced to a 3.5-year prison term and was taken to Shenyang Prison on October 31, 2013. When his family learned about his sentence on November 4, they went to see him. The guard said that Mr. Zhao was “studying” and couldn't receive visitors.

His family told the guard that Mr. Zhao had hepatitis B and wondered why the prison would still hold him. The guard told them that as long as he was still alive, the prison would not release him. This was a new rule. In addition, no practitioners that were “studying” were allowed any visitors.

His family went to visit him again on November 20. The guards informed them that he was being transferred to another cell and refused to allow the visit on that basis. His family returned to the prison on December 3. The guard told them that he was again “studying,” and that they couldn't see him. The guard informed them that they might be able to see him in a month or so.

No one knows how Mr. Zhao is being treated. His family wonders if he has been tortured or is being pressured to "transform."

All the practitioners that were sentenced (except Ms. Wang Yumei, whom the prison officials refused to admit due to health reasons) were taken to a prison. Chi Xiuhua and Yu Shuxian were each sentenced to four years; Shang Liping and Sun Haifeng to three years each; and Wang Yumei, Zhang Deyan, Wang Guihua, and Mu Guodong to 3.5 years each.

No one knows where Chi Xiuhua is being held. Ms. Shang Liping is being held in an “intensive supervision unit.” Her family was not allowed to visit her, so no one knows what has truly happened to her.