(Minghui.org)
“Don’t worry. The police are looking for me.” Ms. Zhang Zhengying (张正英) assured the bus driver.
She then turned to the police. “Don’t bother the driver. What do you want from me?” Without saying anything, the police forcibly dragged her out of the bus and into their car.
The bus Ms. Zhang was on was pulled over by several police officers on January 9, 2014. Ms. Zhang stopped them from checking passengers' ID when she knew they were targeting her.
The police found nothing they wanted from Ms. Zhang when they searched her on the bus, but did confiscate personal items during a subsequent search of her home.
The few 100-yuan bills with messages exposing the persecution of Falun Gong and the several Falun Gong books taken away by police were used as “evidence” to prosecute Ms. Zhang.
Torture and Two Trials
Ms. Zhang was tried on June 30 by the Wanzhou District Court and sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The hearing was not public and did not take place in a courtroom. Authorities found an empty room in a building and rushed through the process. The verdict was announced a week later.
Ms. Zhang immediately appealed to the intermediate court.
At 8:00 a.m. November 19, the higher Wanzhou District No. 2 Court held a second, secret trial for Ms. Zhang. In the months before her appeal, she was tortured so badly at the Zhoujiaba Detention Center that she could not walk on her own and had to be carried into the courtroom.
Police carried her on a stretcher from the police vehicle into court. From the stretcher Ms. Zhang cried out in a weak voice: “We are wronged. We are good people. Falun Dafa is good!...”
The higher court judge quickly announced his decision to uphold Ms. Zhang's original verdict, despite her inability to testify in her own defense.
Six other practitioners were tried with Ms. Zhang: Ms. Zhang Chenying, Ms. Zhao Xingmei, Mr. Chang Guangxing, Ms. Liu Liangying, Ms. Wen Qihui and Ms. Mou Xiuyun. All of the original judgments were sustained.
Ms. Zhang's Husband
Before Ms. Zhang's appeal, on October 14 the Zhoujiaba Detention Center notified Ms. Zhang’s husband, also a practitioner, to bring some clothing for her. Just as he was about to leave for the detention center, he received a phone call warning him not to go.
The caller said the police were planning to arrest him when he arrived. He heeded the warning and the ploy was not successful. They went to his home several times attempting to arrest him, and he was forced to leave his home to avoid persecution.
Practitioner Couple Persecuted Again and Again
Ms. Zhang Zhengying is in her fifties and lives in Huangmeiwuzu, Huangmei Village, Jiuchi Township, Wanzhou District, Chongqing. She started practicing Falun Gong on December 25, 1997. Her husband, Mr. Mou Lunhui, is also a practitioner.
On July 20, 2000, while on their way to visit Ms. Zhang’s mother, they were arrested the first time by police from Longbao Police Department at Wanzhou District Square and sent to a detention center.
At the detention center, for more than four hours the couple was brutally beaten by guards. Mr. Mou passed out from the beating. The guards stole all the money he was carrying before sending him to the hospital.
Mr. Mou was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor. At the Xishanping Forced Labor Camp, he was tortured many times to the point of being in critical condition.
In 2001, Ms. Zhang was sentenced to three years of forced labor. She suffered many brutal tortures in the camp. She would be left in handcuffs several days in a row. Her thighs were so swollen from beatings that her pants had to be cut open. The skin on her back and hips peeled off. Guards hung her in the air for three consecutive days and nights.
Torture re-enactment: Hanging
The couple has been monitored closely by police ever since.
