(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhang Xiwei, 30, from Shaanxi was taken to the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison on June 29, 2023, after her appeal against a 4.5-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong was rejected.
Ms. Zhang Xiwei is now held in the 12th team of the new admits ward. Her family traveled to the prison in Xi’an City on July 25 and August 25 but were denied visiting with her both times. They were told they could not see her, “because she had not yet renounced Falun Gong.” Her family is now very worried about her, knowing the brutal torture Falun Gong practitioners are facing in Chinese prisons.
Ms. Zhang, a native of Liquan County, Shaanxi Province who has recently lived in the provincial capital Xi’an, was arrested at home at 10 p.m. on July 21, 2021, by more than ten officers. They confiscated her copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, a computer, a radio, an MP3 player; and several memory cards. She was taken to the Kunming Road Police Station and held there until the morning of July 23, when the police took her for a physical exam. She was taken to the Xi’an City Detention Center that afternoon.
When they learned that Ms. Zhang’s family hired a lawyer for her, officers from the Yanta District Domestic Security Office in Xi’an, Liquan County Domestic Security Office, and Chigan Police Station in Liquan County went to her mother’s home in Liquan County on August 18, 2021. They questioned the old woman who hired the lawyer and also reported her daughter’s case to Minghui.org. They threatened to arrest her if she did not cooperate. She refused to provide any information and condemned the police for violating the law in threatening her.
The police later submitted Ms. Zhang’s case to the Yanta District Procuratorate in Xi’an. The Yanta District Court tried her via a video hearing on May 30, 2022. Her lawyer entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf.
Citing insufficient evidence, the judge later returned the case to the prosecutor, who then managed to persuade the judge to continue the trial against Ms. Zhang. The judge held a second video hearing on August 16, and the prosecutor presented the same evidence as new evidence.
The judge sentenced Ms. Zhang to 4.5 years with a 10,000-yuan fine on November 22, 2022.
Targeted for Her Faith Since Age Six
When the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, Ms. Zhang was only six years old. She once described her persecution as follows:
“Since I was little, my mother guided me to follow Falun Gong’s principles to be honest, kind, and considerate of others. I always remember that I’m a Falun Gong practitioner and live by its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Many of my teachers and classmates liked me.
“After the persecution started on July 20, 1999, my family has lived under a dark cloud and was subjected to non-stop harassment and terror.
“My mother was arrested by Liquan County Police Department officers in 2000. She was later given an 18-month term in the Xi’an City Women’s Forced Labor Camp. During that time, my paternal grandparents, who were in their 70s, had to take care of me and my two siblings, while still working the family’s farmland. In addition to their physical exhaustion, they also constantly worried about my mother, which caused them tremendous mental distress.
“After my mother was released in 2002, I noticed several large bruises on her legs. I asked her what happened to her. She didn’t tell me anything. I later learned that she was tortured in the labor camp. I also read on Minghui.org about the torture Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to while in custody, including beating, electric shocks, force-feeding, and even organ harvesting.
“When I returned home from school one day in 2007, several people were attempting to arrest my mother again. Fearing that the police might hurt us, my aunt told me and my siblings to leave the house. The three of us ran to the fruit farm in front of the house. When we returned, our mother was gone. This was a blow to my paternal grandfather, who was in his 80s. He passed away a few days after my mother was released.
“When my 13-year-old younger brother and I were at home by ourselves one evening in 2008, someone knocked on the door. I opened the door and the person asked me, ‘Where is your mother?’ I said I didn’t know. They told one person to stay at our home to monitor us and the rest of them drove to my uncle’s home to look for my mother.
“When they returned at around 10 at night, I ran to the car. The driver laughed at me and casually said, ‘Your mother isn’t in the car.’ He might have thought my anxious look was funny, but he didn’t know how much harm they caused our family each time they arrested my mother and what trauma it caused a 15-year-old me.”
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