(Minghui.org) Ms. Jiang Weizhen recently began to serve a six-year term at Liaoning Women's Prison for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Jiang, a resident of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on June 27, 2017, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She appeared in Longcheng District Court on November 30, 2017, and January 25, 2018. She was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan around April 2018.
Ms. Jiang has been repeatedly targeted for her faith in the past 20 years.
Ms. Jiang was first arrested in September 1999 when she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was held at Chaoyang County Detention Center for two months. One officer beat her with a broom and another officer stepped on her chin and verbally abused her.
She went to Beijing again in February 2000 with her husband to appeal for their faith. Both were beaten by the police.
Although her husband was released soon after they were taken back to Chaoyang City, she was held at Shijiahetao Detention Center. She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was force-fed, which resulted in several of her teeth being broken. She had difficulty breathing, kept coughing, and vomited blood. She was unable to fall asleep for many nights after the force-feedings.
Ms. Jiang was taken to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp on June 13, 2000, and kept there until January 17, 2001. She was subjected to various methods of torture, including sleep deprivation, squatting, and beatings by the inmates, in order to force her to agree to stop practicing Falun Gong.
While she served time at the labor camp, her husband was arrested again and also sent to a labor camp. The couple's persecution dealt a heavy blow to her father-in-law, who became ill and passed away soon afterward. Her mother-in-law, then in her 70s, struggled to take care of the couple's 13-year-old daughter.
Three years after Ms. Jiang was released, she was arrested again on January 31, 2004, for posting information about Falun Gong. She was given three years of forced labor and served time at Masanjia Labor Camp again.
Ms. Jiang's latest arrest devastated her mother-in-law, who died shortly after she was sentenced to prison.
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