(Minghui.org) It was recently learned that a Yishui County, Shandong Province resident has been admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison to serve time for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Li Xiaomei’s prison sentence stemmed from her initial arrest on January 19, 2021, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials in Mazhan Town, Yishui County. The arresting officers from the Yishui County Domestic Security Division, the Mazhan Town Police Station, and the Shagou Town Police Station raided her home and took Ms. Li to the Mazhan Town Police Station.
After her arrest was formally approved, the police attempted to transfer her to the Linyi City Detention Center but she was denied admission due to poor health. (Note: Linyi City oversees Yishui County.)
Ms. Li was released on bail on January 21, 2021. Months later on July 1, more than a dozen local government officials broke into her home and ordered her to renounce Falun Gong. She refused and the police submitted her case to the Yi’nan County Procuratorate. Yi’nan County is also under he administration of Linyi City.
Someone from the procuratorate called Ms. Li on August 9, 2021 and threatened to indict her and forward her case to the Yi’nan County Court if she refused to give up her faith. She again refused and was arrested on August 1, 2022. Her daughter, who has an intellectual disability and needs her mother’s care, was taken with her to the local brainwashing center.
Ms. Li again held firm to her faith despite the threats of prison time for her arrest in January 2021. She was released after some days, only to be arrested again on August 23, 2022, by officers from the Shagou Town Police Station.
The Yi’nan County Court sentenced Ms. Li to three years (or four years according to another report) with a 30,000-yuan fine. The presiding judge said if she paid the fine, he would allow her to serve time outside of prison. As Ms. Li has broken no law in practicing Falun Gong, she did not pay any fine. The judge walked back his words and allowed her to go home. However, the local government and police kept harassing her at home and arrested her again in early June 2024. Her systolic blood pressure shot up to 200 mmHg (a normal range is 120 or lower) and she was released.
The Mazhan Town Police Station officers arrested Ms. Li again days later, on June 23, 2024. Her daughter was left to fend for herself. It was recently learned that Ms. Li had been transferred to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison.
This is not the first time that Ms. Li has been targeted for her faith. On November 21, 1999, she and several other local practitioners were arrested and brutally tortured at the Shagou Town Police Station. Officers Xu Yilin, Xu Maowei, Su Guiming, Ji Yuqiang, Lu Jinhe, and Duan Baoliang recruited more than two dozen local people to abuse the practitioners.
The perpetrators stripped the practitioners to their undergarments and forced them to sit on the cold cement floor, with bricks placed on their stretched-out arms and legs. Anyone who failed to keep the bricks on their limbs or refused to curse the founder of Falun Gong would be kicked and punched.
Officers from the Yishui County Domestic Security Division and the Shagou Town Police Station broke into Ms. Li’s home on November 1, 2011 and arrested her. Her father, nearly 80, was also arrested at her home. He was later released but Ms. Li was given an unknown term of forced labor.
Ms. Li was arrested at home on December 25, 2016, and taken to the Shagou Town Police Station. The police did not find anything at her home with which to incriminate her, and released her in the afternoon.
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