(Minghui.org) A married couple in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province were recently sentenced for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Zhang Xianjun, his wife Ms. Xu Yan, and Ms. Li Huimin were placing cards with information about how to break through the government’s internet censorship on the windshields of cars on May 16, 2020, when they were reported to the police. Two officers soon arrived and stopped them.
The three practitioners were brought to the Dongfeng Police Station and interrogated. Meanwhile, other groups of officers searched the practitioners’ homes, confiscating two copies of Falun Gong books from the couple and the book The Ultimate Goal of Communism from Ms. Li.
When the police were planning to release them at around 4:30 p.m., they noticed a big key on Mr. Zhang’s key chain. Mr. Zhang explained that it was for his electric bike, but the police didn’t believe him and returned to his home and thoroughly searched it again, discovering and confiscating more Falun Gong-related materials.
The police interrogated the three practitioners again at the Shuangcheng Police Department and took their fingerprints. Then they put the couple on criminal detention and gave Ms. Li ten days of administrative detention. All three were taken to the hospital for a physical examination. Due to the pandemic, the local detention center refused to accept them. While Ms. Li was released and cleared of prosecution, Mr. Zhang and his wife were put under house arrest and ordered to report to the Zhanqian Police Station every day.
On the afternoon of October 18, 2020, when the couple went to the Police Station for the daily reporting, they were arrested and taken to the Dongfeng Police Station. After 15 days of quarantine, Mr. Zhang was transferred to the Shuangcheng Detention Center and Ms. Xu to the Harbin City No. 2 Detention Center.
Their family hasn’t been allowed to visit them and they haven’t been provided any updates about their case. They later learned that Mr. Zhang was sentenced to three years and Ms. Xu to two years in April 2021. It’s not clear whether they have been transferred yet, and to what prisons.