(Minghui.org) A Yunfu City, Guangdong Province resident has been detained for over a year for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Shen Xuemei, 44, was arrested on September 30, 2019. She was detained for 15 days at the Luoding Administrative Detention Facility, before being transferred to the Luoding Detention Center. She was transferred again in October 2020, this time to the Yunfu City Detention Center. It’s not clear whether she is facing prosecution.
Ms. Shen took up Falun Gong in May 1998. After the communist regime ordered the persecution, she went with her younger brother, Mr. Shen Mingjun, and two other practitioners, Mr. Zeng Yuwen and Ms. Baijing, to Beijing in February 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong.
Ms. Shen and her brother were arrested for displaying a Falun Gong banner at Tiananmen Square. They were then sent back to Yunfu, detained at the Luoding Detention Center for a month and fined 2,000 yuan.
Ms. Shen returned to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in April 2000 and was arrested again. After she was taken back and sent to the Luoding Detention Center, the guards shackled her ankles. The shackles were so heavy that her ankles bled while she walked.
Ms. Shen was later given one year at the Sanshui Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She was forced to get up around 5 a.m. and work without pay until 10 p.m. Sometimes the guards held her in an isolated room, didn’t allow her to talk with anyone and ordered the inmates to humiliate and abuse her. Because Ms. Shen refused to renounce Falun Gong, her term was extended by seven months.
While Ms. Shen was serving time, her fiancé, Mr. Chen Jianguo, also served a term at the Sanshui Forced Labor for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing in early 2000. Only days after they returned to Luoding after their terms expired in November 2001, they were arrested and detained again.
Ms. Shen and Mr. Chen got married after they were released. The police continued to harass them and attempted to send them to a brainwashing center. They were forced to move from place to place to avoid arrest. Later on, the couple had a son and they had to stay on the move with the little boy.
On October 25, 2007, Mr. Chen was arrested in Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province by a plainclothes officer. He was secretly sentenced to seven years in May 2008 and sent to the Sihui Prison in September, where he was subjected to beatings, electric shocks and other torture.
Due to the continued harassment, Mr. Chen was forced to live away from home again after he was released. Unable to find him, the authorities harassed Ms. Shen, took her picture, videotaped her, and interrogated her, in attempt to find out Mr. Chen’s whereabouts.
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