(Minghui.org) After Ms. Zhang Yuhong finally woke up from a coma after suffering a stroke, the prison authorities still refused to release her on medical parole. The Fuxin City, Liaoning Province, woman was recently transferred to the ward specifically for elderly and disabled prisoners to finish serving her four-year term for practicing Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Yuhong, in her 50s, was arrested on November 7, 2018, by police officers who had been following her. Two other practitioners who were with her, Ms. Wang Jinfeng and Ms. Bian Chunyan, escaped.
Ms. Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison in the Taiping District Court in July 2019. She appealed the verdict, but the Funxin City Intermediate Court refused to reconsider the judgment. On September 24, 2019, she was taken to the fifth ward in Liaoning Women’s Prison.
Ms. Zhang suffered a stroke in late June 2020 and remained in a coma. When her family went to the intensive care unit to visit her, the guards would not let them get near her and refused to answer any questions. A doctor told her family that she had injuries on her back, but the prison guards prevented her family from looking at her and didn't let the doctor give them any details on her condition.
The guards also forced her family to sign several documents clearing the prison of any responsibility concerning Ms. Zhang’s condition. While it was prison personnel that didn’t allow Ms. Zhang’s family to visit her, the guards blamed her family for not visiting her on a regular basis, alleging that it “caused her to become ill.”
The doctor later operated on Ms. Zhang twice. The guards prevented the doctor from communicating with her family but told them they had to pay 100,000 yuan to cover Ms. Zhang's medical expenses.
Ms. Zhang’s family had a video meeting with her in early February 2021. She was no longer on a ventilator and was able to speak but not clearly. She also has trouble moving the right side of her body.
Prison officials have continued to prevent her family from visiting her in person while still demanding that they cover her medical expenses. She was recently transferred from the fifth ward to the eleventh ward for the elderly and disabled prisoners.
After nine months of dodging police, Ms. Wang and Ms. Bian were arrested on August 9, 2019. Ms. Wang was sentenced to 5.5 years and Ms. Bian to 2.5 years in prison in January 2020. They were transferred from the Xindi Detention Center to the Liaoning Women’s Prison on October 25, 2020.
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