(Minghui.org) According to information collected by Minghui.org, 5 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have been sentenced, 4 have been tried and are awaiting verdicts, and 17 were arrested in June and July of 2016, all in Fujian Province.
These Fujian residents were targeted because they refuse to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
Five Sentenced
Ms. Zhao Fengran was sentenced to five years in the Gulou District Court in Fuzhou City almost two years after her arrest on September 17, 2014. She is now in Fujian Women's Prison. According to her family who has visited her, she is emaciated and suffers from symptoms of high blood pressure and diabetes.
Ms. Wang Chun from Shaowu City was sentenced to four years in Shaowu Court. She has also been taken to Fujian Women's Prison to serve out her term.
In the Gulou District Court, Ms. Zhang Shuilian and Ms. Guo Bizhen were each sentenced to three years and Ms. Lin Meifang to four years. All three are still being held in Fuzhou's No. 2 Detention Center.
These five sentenced practitioners are all in their 60s and 70s.
Four Tried and Awaiting Verdicts
Four practitioners, Huang Yaping, Huang Yajie, Li Lifang, and Jiang Xuemei, from Xiamen City, were tried on July 20 in the Siming District Court. Their lawyers defended their constitutional right to freedom of belief. Due to lack of evidence, the judge adjourned the trial without a verdict.
All four were arrested on November 13, 2015. In particular, Ms. Li Lifang suffered from trauma-induced blindness and hearing loss the day after her arrest. Despite her lawyer's efforts, the police refused to allow her to apply for bail on medical grounds and took her to the No. 1 Detention Center in Xiamen.
Related report:Denied Medical Care, Detained Woman Faces Permanent Loss of Vision and Hearing
Seventeen Recently Arrested
Eleven Arrests in Ningde City
Between June 26 and 27, 10 practitioners from Ningde City were arrested, including Xiao Chuanxiong, Yang Xiong, Yang Yumei, Chen Xingguang (in his 70s), Jin Liyan, Lin Lifang, and Zheng Rongzhu. Three practitioners' names remain to be investigated.
The police ransacked the homes of Xiao Chuanxiong and Yang Xiong and confiscated their cellphones, computers, and other supplies that they used to produce Falun Gong-related flyers at home.
The police didn’t acknowledge the arrests until other local practitioners reported their disappearance.
An eleventh practitioner, Liu Fengyue, 45, was arrested in mid-July.
It has been more than a month since the practitioners were arrested, but their current situations are still unknown.
Two Arrests in Nanping City
On June 14, dozens of police officers broke into and ransacked the homes of Ms. Hu Liyu and Ms. Wang Yin. All Falun Gong related materials were taken away.
Ms. Hu Liyu was taken to Sihe Police Station and interrogated that day. She was transferred to the detention center the next day and is still there. The police approved her arrest 38 days later.
Ms. Wang Yin, 59, was at home alone during the police raid. She was also taken to the police station and later transferred to the detention center. She was released after 37 days of detention.
Two Arrests in Putian City
Xu Hanxiong was arrested while distributing informational flyers about Falun Gong in July and is currently detained in Putian Detention Center.
Chen Zhaolin, 81, was arrested around July 1. Although he was released on bail, the police continued to harass him at home.
Two Arrests in Fuzhou City
Zhang Liyu and Jiang Yanmei were arrested together at a park while talking to people about Falun Gong on June 10. They were kept at Shangdu Police Station over night and then in Fuzhou Detention Center for 15 days. The police transferred them to No. 2 Detention Center in Fuzhou on June 26, after their arrests were approved and their cases submitted to the Domestic Security Division.
When their families went to the police and asked what was the legal reason the two had been arrested, the police told them, “We don't follow the law.”
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