U.S. Resident's Sister Sentenced to 10 Years and Nephew to 3.5 Years for Practicing Falun Gong
(Minghui.org) Two years after Ms. Kang Shumei and her son, Mr. Zhang Gu, both from Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, were arrested for practicing Falun Gong, they were convicted, receiving 10 and 3.5 years, respectively. This is the second time that Ms. Kang has been sentenced for her faith in Falun Gong, having served an eight-year term between 2002 and 2010.
After their appeals were rejected, Ms. Kang was admitted to the Shanxi Province Women’s Prison and Mr.. Zhang to Jinzhong Prison.
Ms. Kang’s sister, Ms. Karen Kang, of Los Angeles, U.S., condemned the Chinese Communist Party for persecuting her relatives. She called on the international community to pay attention to the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Karen Kang at a rally on Santa Monica Pier Park on July 28 calling for the end of persecution of Falun Gong.
Karen is also seeking justice for her other nephew, Mr. Hou Lijun, the son of her other sister, Ms. Kang Shuqin, who passed away in 2020, after serving an 11-year term for her faith in Falun Gong. Mr. Hou is currently serving a 10-year term for practicing Falun Gong. He held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was brutally force-fed. Critical condition notices have been issued for him at least three times.
Ms. Kang Shumei, 62, a former employee of the Seventh Division of the Ministry of Coal Industry, and Mr. Zhang were arrested on October 31, 2022, by Yin Yongxiang, Zhang Runquan, Ai Runlin, Zhao Hu, Zhao Yue, and Zhang (first name unknown) from the Gujiao City Police Department. They received a tip from their colleague, Chu Hao, a network monitor, who saw from surveillance cameras that the mother and son were raising awareness about the persecution. (Gujiao is under the jurisdiction of Taiyuan.)
Ms. Kang was held in the Gujiao City No. 4 Detention Center and Mr. Zhang at the Taiyuan City No. 1 Detention Center. The police barred their family from visiting them or sending clothes to them.
The Gujiao police worked with their colleagues in Taiyuan, including Li Xiaojun, Qin Xuting, and Li Yuhang of the Xiaodian Police Department and Ma Ruijun, Qin Xugang, and Tian Qiang of the Longcheng Police Station to submit the practitioners’ joint case to the Wanbailin District Procuratorate in Taiyuan.
Prosecutor Shi Yuan indicted them and moved their case to the Wanbailin District Court. Presiding judge Wang Zengxin held a hearing on November 3, 2023, and handed down the sentences at an unknown date.
In recent sentencing cases of Falun Gong practitioners in Taiyuan, most of the practitioners were indicted by prosecutor Shi, including Mr. Hou and Ms. Zhang Liwen, an 80-year-old woman who was sentenced to over three years earlier this year.
This was also the second time that Ms. Kang Shumei has been given a lengthy term for practicing Falun Gong. After she escaped an arrest in February 2001, she went into hiding. After over a year of displacement, Ms. Kang was arrested in October 2002 and sentenced to eight years. Her son Mr. Zhang was only around 13 at the time. She served time in the Shanxi Province Women’s Prison.