(Minghui.org) Fifteen residents in the Beilin District of Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province, were arrested on August 27, 2022, thirteen of whom were targeted for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999. The other two were family members that were implicated.
Seven of the 13 Falun Gong practitioners have been sentenced. None of their family members were informed of their court hearings or issued official copies of the verdicts.
Mr. Zhang Lianqing was sentenced to 3.5 years and is currently incarcerated at Hulan Prison. His wife, Ms. Liu Guiying, was given 1.5 years and has been taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison. Their son, Mr. Zhang Fengming, 32, was sentenced to 1.5 years in Beian Prison.
Ms. Bai Yajuan, the owner of a laundry and tailor shop, was sentenced to three years. She was taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on March 30, 2023. Not long before her arrest, she had paid one year of rent for her store. Now her husband is under tremendous pressure to keep the store running.
Ms. Zheng Lanqin, a retired teacher in her 70s, was released on bail after her arrest. She was taken back into custody at the Suihua City Detention Center in March 2023. She was sentenced to 1.5 years, and taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on April 21. She is currently experiencing declining health and blurred vision. Her family has spent a fortune trying to seek her release.
The prison terms of the remaining two practitioners, Ms. Guo Junxia and Ms. Lang Cuixiang, aren’t known at the time of this writing.
More Information About the Arrests
The following 15 Beilin District residents (including 13 practitioners and 2 family members) were arrested on August 27, 2022.
A Family of Three
The Zhang family was followed by the police while putting up posters about Falun Gong. The police arrested them after they returned home. Ms. Liu’s sister, who also practices Falun Gong, was arrested when she went to visit them. The police also ransacked her home and confiscated two Falun Gong books.
Four Members of an Extended Family
After Ms. Bai was arrested, the police also took her father, husband, and aunt, Ms. Zhu Xiuhua, to the police station for interrogation. All three of Ms. Bai's family members were released on the same day. Ms. Bai’s father and husband do not practice Falun Gong.
Mother Dies One Month After Daughter’s Arrest
Ms. Liu Lianbo fell into a coma after being taken to the police station and was taken to a hospital. She was released in the evening. Ms. Liu’s 83-year-old mother was also on the police’s list to be arrested. As the police didn’t find any Falun Gong materials in her residence, they left without arresting her. But terrified by the raid, she passed away a month later.
Seven Other Practitioners
Seven other practitioners were also arrested on the same day, including the aforementioned Ms. Zheng, Ms. Guo, and Ms. Liang, as well as Ms. Li Yanhui, Ms. Liu Xiaomin, Ms. Wang Qiuyan, and Ms. Yao Juan. The latter three were held at the Suihua City Lockup and released 15 days later. Ms. Zheng was released on bail but taken back into custody in March 2023.
Secret Sentencing of Seven Practitioners
The Zhang family, Ms. Bai, Ms. Zheng, Ms. Guo, Ms. Lang, and Ms. Li were detained at the Suihua City Detention Center. The Hailun City Procuratorate approved their arrests on September 20, 2022. Ms. Li was later released and exempted from prosecution.
The Hailun City Court initially scheduled a hearing of the remaining seven practitioners’ cases on December 28, 2022, but canceled it due to a local COVID-19 outbreak. The judge later sentenced the practitioners secretly without informing their families.
The group arrests and sentencings were ordered by Zhang Junyong, the deputy secretary of the Suihua Municipal Party Committee, secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and principal of the Suihua Municipal Party School, who was appointed to the three positions in 2018.
The police had monitored and followed the practitioners since April 2022. Dubbed “Hundred Days of War,” the operation was to prevent the practitioners from speaking up during the Communist Party’s 20th Congress to be held in October. Once a practitioner was found distributing truth-clarification materials, the police would set up additional surveillance of him or her in order to discover and target all practitioners who had contact with them.
Related report:
Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province: At Least Eleven Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day
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