(Minghui.org) A Dehui City, Jilin Province, resident, was arrested on July 8, 2023 for practicing Falun Gong. The Dehui City Domestic Security Office twice submitted Mr. Zhao Jinmin’s case to the Dehui City Procuratorate, which returned it both times citing insufficient evidence. It’s recently confirmed by Minghui.org that Mr. Zhao has been sentenced to 1.5 years, but details about his indictment, trial and sentencing aren’t clear.
This isn’t the first time that Mr. Zhao, a former grain depot manager, has been targeted since the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline in 1999. He was previously arrested multiple times and given three labor camp terms. His wife, Ms. Ma Jinghuan, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was twice arrested with him. She developed a physical condition due to the mental pressure from the persecution and passed away in the winter of 2022.
Below is Mr. Zhao’s own account of the persecution he suffered previously.
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Harassment
On July 22, 1999, two days following the onset of the persecution, I went to the Jilin provincial government to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. I was arrested and taken to an elementary school in the suburbs. During the eight hours I was held there, the police beat and kicked me. One Falun Gong book I had with me was confiscated.
Knowing that I was a volunteer coordinator of local practitioners, the police and Communist Party Committee members often harassed me at home, demanding me to turn in my Falun Gong books, video and audio tapes. They also ordered me to write statements to renounce and vilify Falun Gong. My family and I lived under enormous fear. Police officers Zhang Yongchen and Zhang Yede extorted 2,000 yuan from me and only returned 1,500 yuan later on.
One-year Labor Camp Term
I was arrested on September 26, 1999 and taken to the Dehui City Lockup for 15 days. Liu Wenchao and two other police officers tortured me: they stepped on my toes with the heels of their leather shoes, stripped me naked, and whipped me with leather belts, and placed bullet casing between my fingers and then squeezed my fingers.
Ordered by Yu Xiaozhou, the Party secretary, I was given one year at the Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp. I was forced to do intensive hard labor without pay every day. Worried about my health, my family bribed the officials. I was released four months later and allowed to serve the remaining term at home.
More Arrests and Second Labor Camp Term
I was arrested on March 2, 2000 by officers of the Yangshu Police Station at the order of Sheng Shizhong, the political secretary of Dehui City Police Department and Zhang Qingchun, the head of Dehui City Domestic Security Office. While I was allowed to go home in the evening, I was arrested again next day and detained 20 days.
I was arrested one more time in mid-April 2001 and held in a brainwashing center hosted by the Dehui City 610 Office for 15 days.
Officers of the Zhengyang Street Police Station seized me while I was walking on the street on May 28, 2001. My Falun Gong materials, cellphone, and over 500 yuan in cash were confiscated. At the police station, I was slapped in the face, held in a metal cage, and hit on the ribs and armpits. Officer Wang Peiguo covered my head with a plastic bag many times to suffocate me. A day later, I was taken to the Changchun City First Detention Center for more than a month. Guards Wang and Wan Dexue beat me several times, trying to force me to reveal information about other practitioners and where I got the Falun Gong materials. I refused to comply and was given a two-year term at the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp.
The labor camp was like a hell on earth. We were closely monitored by the inmates and not allowed to talk to other Falun Gong practitioners. Our daily activities were strictly controlled, including how much and when we could drink water, when and how often we could use the restroom or when and how long we could sleep every night.
For the entire month in August 2001, the over 30 people in the first team I was held at weren’t allowed to wash our faces. Only the head inmates had the privilege to wash themselves. During September and October, we were forced to have our three meals in the restroom shared by three teams. Oftentimes, there was someone using the toilet during our meal times. A few times during the water outage, we still had to have our meals in the extremely foul-smelling restroom.
One day in September 2001, the guards Wang Kai and Li Jun found printed copies of Falun Gong lectures in my bed. They cuffed my hands to the upper rail of the bunk bed, with my toes barely touching the ground. Li shocked me with an electric baton, while having an inmate pouring water under my feet to intensify the electric shocks. Wang beat my head and face with a rubber tube. When the tube broke, he beat me with a leather belt. Feeling it was still not enough, he found a hard shoe with rubber sole and continued to beat me, mostly on my head and face, until he became exhausted himself two hours later. As I still remained firmed in Falun Gong, he wrapped some cables in a bundle and beat my legs. He finally stopped when his whole body couldn’t stop shaking due to fatigue. By then, my face was covered with blood and badly swollen. My body was also covered with injuries and bruises.
In a campaign in September 2002 to force steadfast Falun Gong practitioners to give in, guard Gu Li beat me on my back, buttocks, and legs with a hard wood stick that was longer than a meter. I was unable to stand, walk, or sleep on my back afterwards.
Gu and a few other guards forced me and another practitioner Mr. Wang Yong to stand under running faucets for over 40 minutes one day in November 2002. We were so cold that our bodies couldn’t stop shaking.
Also in November 2002, all Falun Gong practitioners held in the labor camp were gathered at the clinic and had our blood samples taken. The guards made it specific that they were only interested in collecting blood samples from Falun Gong practitioners, not any other regular inmates. None of us knew what was going on. Only when the forced organ harvesting crime was exposed in 2006 did we realize that the authorities were building an organ bank with our biological data.
After my two-year term expired, I was held at the labor camp for another 15 days. Upon seeing that I still didn’t renounce Falun Gong, the Dehui City 610 Office took me to the Xinglongshan Brainwashing Center in Changchun City for 15 more days before finally releasing me.
Third Labor Camp Term
Zhang Qingchun of the Dehui City Domestic Security Office, Wu Demin of the Yangshu Police Station and a few others knocked on my door at 11: 30 p.m. on September 28, 2004. When I refused to open the door, they broke in, arrested me and my wife. The police took me to the labor camp twice, but I was rejected admission both times due to my health condition. In the end, the police still gave me one year of forced labor and allowed me to serve time at home. Police officer Bai Yadong extorted 2,000 yuan from me.
Another Incident of Home Ransacking
More than ten officers from the Yangshu Police Station, Lou Xingyan of the Dehui City Domestic Security Office and two officers from Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province, broke into my home on July 4, 2012. They confiscated my Falun Gong books, a portrait of Falun Gong’s founder, informational materials, a DVD player, two MP3 players, three cellphones, and a handbag.
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