(Minghui.org) Arrested two years ago, a man from Suizhong County, Liaoning Province, was secretly sentenced to three years for his faith in Falun Gong. The authorities didn’t inform his wife of his sentence until they required her presence before they amputated his leg three days after he sprained his ankle.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Zhang Jihong, 51, was arrested in September 2019 at the Suizhong Train Station. He was headed to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. He was held incommunicado in the Suizhong County Detention Center for a year and a half before being transferred to Jinzhou Prison. His family was never notified of his sentence during that time.
On May 20, 2021, Mr. Zhang’s wife, Ms. Yu Fenghong, received a call from a prison guard, who claimed that Mr. Zhang had thrombosis in his leg and that it needed to be amputated. The prison needed Ms. Yu to be there. Only then did the guard tell her about Mr. Zhang’s sentence.
Ms. Yu and other family members went to the hospital the next day and saw Mr. Zhang. He told her that he had sprained his ankle on May 17, but there was no major injury or other complication. He refused to have the amputation and said, “I’m not going to allow them to remove even one toe!”
Suspecting foul play, Ms. Yu refused to sign the amputation consent form. On May 22, she applied to transfer Mr. Zhang to a bigger hospital for a second opinion. The prison refused to grant her request, claiming that Mr. Zhang posed a threat to society. The prison guards harassed her twice and ordered her to sign the consent form. She refused to comply. The prison also refused to release Mr. Zhang on medical parole.
Ms. Yu appealed to the Shenyang Prison Administration and Liaoning Provincial Department of Justice. She wrote, “If the prison believes my husband is in such a bad way that he has to have his leg amputated, then why don’t they approve my request to release him on medical parole?” Both agencies sided with the prison and turned her down.
Ms. Yu said that her family is very worried about Mr. Zhang and the abuse he is facing in prison for upholding his faith. She said Mr. Zhang is a very giving person since taking up Falun Gong. He runs an appliance repair business and often fixed small problems for his customers for free, even when he had to travel to the customers’ own homes. She said he shouldn’t have been persecuted for his faith.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Zhang Shuyi (张树义), head of Jinzhou Prison: +86-18141616444Li Yan (李岩), prison guard: +86-18141610977Li Xu (李旭), deputy prison ward director: +86-18141616688Shen Lianchun (沈连春), secretary, Suizhong County Political and Legal Affairs Committee: +86-429-6138955Luo Yutang (骆玉堂), deputy head of Suizhong County Police Department: +86-429-6122156, +86-13942983588
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related report:
Practitioner Sentenced in Secret to Two Years in Prison for Publicizing Falun Gong
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