(Minghui.org) It’s confirmed by Minghui.org in early August 2023 that a Lanzhou City, Gansu Province resident who was arrested on February 28, 2023, for practicing Falun Gong has been sentenced to five years by the Chengguan District Court.
Ms. Xie Guifang is currently held at the Lanzhou City No.1 Detention Center. Details about her sentencing aren’t clear and it’s also not known whether she would be taken to a prison to soon serve time.
Ms. Xie, 64, is a retired employee of the Nuclear 404 Factory in Jiayuguan City in the same province. She struggled with many ailments since her youth, including anemia, frequent dizziness, palpitation, stomach condition, and joint pain and weakness in her limbs. She regained health after taking up Falun Gong, a mind-body practice, in May 1996.
As Ms. Xie remained firm in her faith after the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of Falun Gong three years later, she has been repeatedly arrested and previously sentenced to four years in prison, before receiving her latest term.
Held in Detention Center and Brainwashing Center
Ms. Xie was arrested in September 2001 and detained for 15 days, after her workplace found her photocopying informational flyers about Falun Gong.
Also for printing Falun Gong materials, Ms. Xie was followed by the police in January 2006. She was arrested while visiting another practitioner, Ms. Li Suhua, and held at the 404 Factory Detention Center for 40 days. After that, she was taken to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center, where she was detained for nearly 100 days.
Ms. Xie was arrested again on November 28, 2008, by security personnel while distributing Falun Gong materials in Biboyuan Villa in Jiayuguan City. The local police ransacked her home and took her to the 404 Factory Detention Center to serve a 15-day detention. She was also fined 1,000 yuan.
Sentenced to Four Years
Ms. Xie’s next arrest was on September 10, 2012. Her Falun Gong books, electronic reader, MP3, and paper currency printed with information about Falun Gong (as a way to raise awareness about the persecution due to strict information censorship) were confiscated. She was first held at the Jiayuguan City Detention Center and then transferred to the Gansu Province Women’s Prison in March 2013, after she was sentenced to four years by the Jiayuguan City Court.
As soon as Ms. Xie was admitted to the prison, the guards stripped her naked to search her body. The guards ordered her to provide information about herself and sign agreements about the restrictions in the prison. As she refused to comply, she was forced to stand overnight, without being given any food.
The next day, she began to feel dizzy and was found to have dangerously high blood pressure (with a systolic pressure reading of 200 mmHg when a normal range is 120 or lower). The guards took her to the prison clinic, where she was given an injection. After bringing her back to the cell, the guards ordered her to write down her basic information again (likely to be used to make a customized brainwashing plan of her).
As Ms. Xie also refused to write thought reports, inmate Yu Weiwei beat her and pulled her hair. Sometimes she was forced to stand overnight without sleep. If she couldn’t answer the questions to smear Falun Gong, she wouldn’t be allowed to eat.
Inmate Yu also forced Ms. Xie to clean her urinal basin and do her laundry. Yu once beat her and kicked her legs when she gave another practitioner, Ms. Zhang Xiaoming, a practitioner in her 60s who had diabetes and was deprived of food, a steam bun.
One More Arrest in 2021
After Ms. Xie was released on December 10, 2015, she later moved to Lanzhou City and worked as a housemaid for Ms. Yang, another Falun Gong who struggled with severe medical conditions.
Two officers from the Xiaoxihu Police Station in Lanzhou broke into Ms. Yang’s home on December 8, 2021. Upon seeing two Falun Gong books on Ms. Yang’s desk, the police asked her who owned the books and threatened to search her home if she refused to answer. Ms. Yang was terrified. Her body shook uncontrollably and she collapsed on her sofa.
Ms. Xie stopped her work in the kitchen and helped Ms. Yang to go to her bedroom for a rest. As she walked out of the room, she saw one officer standing at the front gate and the other one making a phone call outside. Ten minutes later, many officers came. A few of them forcibly held Ms. Xie’s arm to take her photo. She resisted and held on to the radiator attached to the wall. The police handcuffed her behind her back and kept raising her arms. The pain was so excruciating that she felt her arms were about to break.
The police raided Ms. Yang’s residence, confiscating both of their Falun Gong books, cellphone, laptop, and other electric devices. With her hair pulled by the police, Ms. Xie was pushed into the police car and taken to the Xiaoxihu Police Station for interrogation.
The police restrained Ms. Xie in a tiger chair while keeping her handcuffed and shackled. She was held at the police station for 29 hours and then transferred to the Qilihe Lockup for 15 days.
Torture illustration: tiger chair
On the afternoon of December 29, 2021, only five days after Ms. Xie returned to Ms. Yang’s home, the police came again to search Ms. Yang’s residence, when Ms. Xie wasn’t around. A tablet and a cell phone were taken away (it’s not clear whether they belonged to Ms. Xie or Ms. Yang). Despite the fact that Ms. Yang was incapacitated, the police threatened her that no one else was allowed to come to her home (implying that she was to fire Ms. Xie).
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