(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhao Xia’s son suddenly received a call from Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison in late June 2021, asking him to persuade his mother to cooperate with the prison guards and give up her faith in Falun Gong. This was the first time that he has received an update about her case since her court hearing about two and half years ago.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Since Ms. Zhao was tried by the Hantai District Court on December 12, 2018, her son has never heard back from the court. It was only recently that he learned Ms. Zhao was sentenced to four years and scheduled to be released on August 11, 2022.
Ms. Zhao was arrested on August 12, 2018. She reportedly distributed informational materials about Falun Gong to the local police chief, who was walking on the street in plain clothes. Her son didn’t find out about her arrest until three days later when he went to visit her. Her home was ransacked and her computer confiscated.
Her son later learned that she was given 15 days of administrative detention at the Hantai Detention Center. When he went there to deliver some clothes to her, the police refused to accept it, saying that she would be released on August 28.
When her detention expired, however, the police refused to release her. Instead, they told her son that there were some changes to her case and asked him to deliver clothes to her. A few days later, Gao Hanhua, the head of the Domestic Security Office, informed her son that her arrest had been approved on September 12 and she was facing prosecution.
Her son is now very worried about her situation and whether she would be tortured in prison for not renouncing Falun Gong.
Prior to her latest arrest and sentencing, Ms. Zhao was arrested on September 5, 2007. She was sentenced to four years at the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison after one year of detention. During the time, she was fired by her workplace, the Chenggu County Archives Bureau. Shortly after she was released, her husband suddenly died from an ailment, after enduring four years of mental distress from the persecution.
Ms. Zhao was arrested again on November 27, 2015. She was first given ten days of detention and then transferred to the Zaoshu Brainwashing Center for another three weeks. The police constantly harassed her after she was released.
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