(Minghui.org) A 45-year-old resident of Jilin City, Jilin Province was sentenced to three and a half years on April 15, 2024 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zhao Guokun’s family, however, was not notified of her wrongful conviction until after she was admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison, located in the capital city of Changchun. They still do not know which procuratorate indicted her or which court sentenced her, as the police and the judicial system never gave them any updates on her case status. The prison was instructed to only inform them of her jail term.
Ms. Zhao is not the only one in her family who had been targeted for practicing Falun Gong. Her brother, Mr. Zhao Guoxing, around 52, was previously held in a labor camp for three years and jailed for ten years. Their mother, Ms. Li Yan, passed away at the age of 61 on February 5, 2012, after succumbing to the fear and mental distress stemming from the persecution.
The Zhao siblings were most recently arrested together with their father, Mr. Zhao Xudong, on May 4, 2023 and released on bail soon after. Mr. Zhao Xudong died on August 10, 2023, ten days after being harassed at home by the police. He was 77. Ms. Zhao was taken back into custody on December 6, 2023 and later secretly sentenced to prison.
Arrested Together with Father and Brother
Ms. Zhao’s latest ordeal stemmed from a police raid on May 4, 2023. A group of officers from the Jilin City Domestic Security Division and its subordinate Hadawan Police Station and Xinghua Police Station broke into her home at around 7 p.m. that night and arrested her, her father and brother.
The police seized from the home Falun Gong books, a portrait of Falun Gong’s founder, several flyers, a laptop, an iPad, an electronic reader, a cellphone, and a flash-drive.
Ms. Zhao was taken to the Xinghua Police Station, and her father and brother, both Falun Gong practitioners too, were taken to the Hadawan Police Station. She and her father were next taken to a local hospital for physical examinations at around midnight. Despite her father’s high blood pressure, both she and her father were admitted to the Jilin City Detention Center on the next day. Her brother was released in the afternoon.
Ms. Zhao was released on bail on May 17, 2023, and her father around early June 2023.
Ms. Zhao received three documents from the Changyi District Procuratorate on July 18, 2023, including an indictment of her, a recommended prison sentence, and a notice to put her under house arrest.
Father Harassed While On Bail, Dies Ten Days Later
Office Qiu from the Hadawan Police Station harassed Ms. Zhao’s father at home on July 31, 2023 and ordered him to report to the police station. He refused to comply and condemned Qiu for persecuting law-abiding citizens like his family.
The relentless persecution took a toll on the elderly man’s health. He died ten days later, on the early morning of August 10, 2023.
Sentenced Seven Months After Father’s Passing
A group of officers from the Minzhu Police Station, including Wang Heng, pounded on Ms. Zhao’s door on October 29, 2023. She refused to let them in and heard Wang calling a locksmith. For some unknown reason, the police left that day without arresting her. They, however, returned on December 6, 2023 and took her back into custody.
The police never gave Ms. Zhao’s family any updates. Her loved ones did not learn of her wrongful conviction on April 15, 2024 until the prison notified them of her admission.
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