(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Fenghou, a Falun Gong practitioner from Mengyin County, Shandong Province, was arrested August 2016 for petitioning to have her husband released. She has been held at the Linyi City Detention Center for more than six months.
Ms. Liu's elderly father was very upset and sad about her detention. He recently passed away. Her relatives asked the police to let Ms. Liu attend her father’s funeral, but they refused.
Ms. Liu's husband, Mr. Zhao Chuanwen, and another practitioner Mr. Zhou Guangming were arrested when they were talking to people about Falun Gong and the persecution at a farmer's market in Linyi City on December 24, 2015. They are being held in the Linyi City Detention Center.
Mr. Zhou's daughter and Ms. Liu began collecting signatures to urge the authorities to release both practitioners.
After learning about the petition, village officials, officers from the Duozhuang Police Station and the Mengyin Police Department threatened the two women and retaliated. The police arrested both of them in August 2016 and took them to the Linyi City Detention Center.
The two men were tried by the Lanshan District Court. Mr. Zhao was sentenced to two years in prison, and Mr. Zhou to 18 months in prison.
Ms. Liu and her husband sell fabric for a living. They started practicing Falun Gong in 1996, and benefited physically and spiritually.
The couple suffered tremendously after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution in July 1999. They were illegally arrested multiple times and detained at brainwashing centers. Their valuables, worth hundreds and thousands of yuan, were confiscated, and their home was destroyed.
Ms. Liu was subjected to three years of forced labor and released in 2005. Her husband Mr. Zhao, was sentenced to 13 years in prison and released in 2012.
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