(Minghui.org) A Hefei City, Anhui Province resident is facing trial for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
Ms. Tang Juzhang, a 54-year-old former physician, was arrested on May 22, 2020. The police ransacked her home and confiscated her laptop, printer, DVD player and cellphone. Her husband, Mr. Yang Shugui, was arrested together with her and released the next afternoon.
Ms. Tang was taken to a local hospital on May 24 and held there until May 29 before being transferred to the Hefei City Women’s Detention Center. Only one day after the Shushan District Court informed her husband that she had been indicted, her husband was arrested again on October 27, 2020, and detained for 15 days.
For refusing to renounce her faith, Ms. Tang was fired by the hospital she worked at in 2003. She was arrested several times and served three years in prison and two one-year labor camp terms.
Three-Year Prison Sentence
Ms. Tang was first arrested in December 2003 and taken to a brainwashing center. Because she refused to write statements to renounce Falun Gong, the hospital didn’t allow her to go back to work. She was fired not long afterwards.
Ms. Tang was arrested again in April 2004 for distributing materials about Falun Gong and was detained in Chaohu Detention Center. She was later sentenced to three years in Anhui Province Women’s Prison.
The prison guards shocked her with electric batons, hung her up, and put her in solitary confinement. She was repeatedly beaten and verbally abused by the inmates. The guards once took her to a brainwashing session and attempted to force her to renounce Falun Gong. When she refused to comply, they ordered five inmates to hold her against a table and beat her head. Her left eye became blind, and she had bleeding in the brain.
In late 2005, Ms. Tang was transferred to the ward designated for elderly detainees. She was kept in a damp and dark storage room every day between 6 a.m. and 12 a.m., where she was handcuffed, hung up, tied up, and forced to watch propaganda videos defaming Falun Gong. Sometimes the guards stuffed her mouth with a rag or wrapped tape around her head. She later found out that the guards had been secretly putting unknown drugs into her food.
Two Labor Camp Terms
Ms. Tang was arrested on February 23, 2008, after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was first detained at the Hefei City No.1 Detention Center and then transferred to the Anhui Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp after she was given a one-year term on March 26, 2008.
As soon she was taken to the labor camp, Ms. Tang shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” A guard immediately covered her mouth and put her in solitary confinement.
They also hung her up and stretched her limbs in four directions. When she held a hunger strike to protest the persecution, they force-fed her and ripped one corner of her mouth. When she still refused to compromise, they forced her to wear a straitjacket. After over four months of torture, she had a persistent fever and coughed up blood. She was emaciated, dizzy, and on the verge of death. Only then did the labor camp release her. Although she recovered most of her strength after doing Falun Gong exercises, she still suffered some permanent memory loss.
Ms. Tang was arrested again on May 11, 2009, for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was detained at Hefei No.2 Detention Center and then given another year at Anhui Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp.
The guards forced her to wear a straitjacket again. They also wrapped her head in tape and covered her mouth. They held her by her feet with her head on the ground, dragged her from her cell downstairs from the fourth floor to the labor camp workshop in the morning, and then dragged her back in the evening. This went on every day for a month.
The labor camp extended her term for 18 days and then took her to a brainwashing center to force her to renounce her faith.
More Arrests
Ms. Tang was taken to another brainwashing session located in a hotel on May 22, 2014. She was on the verge of breakdown after ten days of torture and was forced to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong against her will. She was then released.
The police attempted to arrest her again in February 2015. She lived away from home to hide from the police for a few months, only to be arrested at home and have her home ransacked on September 21, 2015. She was arrested two more times, on January 15, 2016, and October 28, 2019, respectively.
Ms. Tang was arrested again on January 29, 2020, for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was taken back to Anhui the next day. The police harassed her in mid-May before arresting her days later.
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