(Minghui.org) A 79-year-old woman stood trial on September 10, 2021 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Ji Baozhen, a widow in Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was previously arrested on August 24, 2020 for talking to people about Falun Gong. While she was released that evening, the police suddenly arrested her again on September 2, 2021 and took her straight to the Nangou Detention Center.
Her family was told on September 9 that she was scheduled to stand trial on the next day at Wanghua District Court. Details of the hearing are not clear at the time of writing.
Past Persecution
Ms. Ji began to practice Falun Gong in 1999. At the time, she and her sole-breadwinner husband struggled to support their family of five. The pressure of life made her almost lose hope in life. Within two months of her practice of Falun Gong, however, the physical ailments that tormented her for years disappeared, and she also took a new outlook on life and no longer felt despair.
When the communist regime ordered the persecution in July 1999, Ms. Ji went to Beijing on July 22 to appeal for Falun Gong. She first went to the National Appeals Office. But upon seeing that it was heavily guarded and practitioners going there to appeal were arrested, Ms. Ji didn’t get close, but instead went to the Tiananmen Square to talk to locals and visitors alike about the illegality of the persecution.
Ms. Ji stayed in Beijing for two months until she was arrested on September 28, 1999 by officers of the Tiananmen Police Station. The police slapped her in the face and handcuffed her in the chair the entire night. The handcuffs were so tight that they cut into her wrists.
On the next day, Ms. Ji was taken back to Fushun and detained at the Wujiabao Forced Labor Camp. As she didn’t cooperate with the guards in reciting the labor camp rules, they forced her to sit on a small stool without moving. The food quality was very poor. The guards, especially one named Zhao Suqin, beat her whenever she did the Falun Gong exercises.
After three months of detention, she was released on January 29, 2000. Only two hours later, Yu Jiang, the Communist Party secretary of local residential committee, came to harass her.
On the third day she was released, Yu brought Ms. Ji to his office and interrogated her as to whether she encouraged other practitioners to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Yu punished her by forcing her to stand outdoors for over four hours with only a thin layer of clothes.
After that, officers of the Heping Police Station constantly came to harass her, sometimes at 4 a.m. and sometimes at 9 p.m. The director of local residential committee also ordered her neighbor to monitor her daily activities.
Ms. Ji was arrested again in April 2004 for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police gave her three years at the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp without due process.
The local police harassed Ms. Ji again in the “Knocking on the Door” harassment campaign in March 2017.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Xu Gang (徐刚), head of Wanghua District Procuratorate: +86-24-56809936Yang Wenjun (杨文君), deputy head of Fushun City Police Department: +86-15941388787, +86-24-52625821Peng Yue (彭越), head of Fushun City Domestic Security Office: +86-13841334590Wei Zhenxing (魏振兴), officer of Domestic Security Office: +86-13841301212Li Caoliang (李曹亮), deputy head of Heping Police Station: +86-13942388533
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
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