(Minghui.org) A Zhoukou City, Henan Province, resident was arrested on July 9, 2020, for distributing materials about Falun Gong while visiting her family in the neighboring Anhui Province. She is still detained in Jieshou City, Anhui at the time of writing.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Yang Xiuling’s latest arrest was proceeded by two prison terms for a total of ten years and repeated arrests for upholding her faith.
In the early years of the persecution, Ms. Yang went to Beijing twice to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong and was detained each time. During one of her detentions, Lu Feng, a Domestic Security Office director, hit her hard on her head and whipped her with a leather belt, after she refused to cooperate in the interrogation. Another officer Peng Yu shackled and handcuffed her for more than 20 days and forced her to walk around to humiliate and torture her.
Ms. Yang was arrested again in October 2002 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. When she was released, she was heartbroken to learn that her husband had an affair. He later filed for divorce, with the excuse that Ms. Yang practiced Falun Gong.
Ms. Yang did odd jobs to support her children and her mother in her 80s. To raise awareness about the persecution, she began to print some informational materials at home. After her ex-husband found out about it, he complained to his supervisor, the head of a university’s security department, who then reported Ms. Yang to the police.
On May 4, 2006, four officers broke into Ms. Yang’s home, arrested her and confiscated her computer, printer, and the materials she printed.
Yu Yiyun, the head of Zhoukou City 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong, ordered the Chuanhui District Court to sentence Ms. Yang to ten years. She appealed the sentence and the appeals court reduced her term to seven years.
Ms. Yang was subjected to long-term torture at Xinxiang Women’s Prison, including sleep deprivation, not being allowed to wash, as well as being forced to do intensive labor.
Only three years after she returned home, she was arrested again on March 14, 2016, for talking to people about Falun Gong, while visiting her family in Jieshou City, Anhui Province. She was later sentenced to three years in prison.
By the time she was released in 2019, she was almost 70s years old. Her hair had turned gray and she looked pale and exhausted. Despite her own frail condition, she helped care for her ex-mother-in-law for two months, who was in her final days of terminal lung cancer. Her ex-brother-in-law said to her children, “Your mother is the best person I know!”
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