(Minghui.org) It was confirmed by Minghui.org in late June 2023 that a 51-year-old resident of Jizhou District, Hengshui City, Hebei Province, had been sentenced to four and a half years for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Li Zhijun, a teacher at the Jizhou District Vocational School, has filed an appeal with the Hengshui City Intermediate Court.
Arrest
Ms. Li was arrested a bit past 5 a.m. on October 10, 2021, while she was still sound asleep. Her nephew, around 10 and living with her, was terrified.
Four other Jizhou District residents were also arrested that morning, including Mr. Liu Qianli, Mr. Han Jinjing, Ms. Gao Xiuping, and Ms. Han Yongsheng. The latter three are from the same family.
The arresting officers were from the Jizhou District Domestic Security Office. They took the five Falun Gong practitioners to Hehong Hotel (located in Taocheng District of Hengshui City), a section of which had been retrofitted and used as a black jail to torture Falun Gong practitioners.
The practitioners’ families later each received a notice saying that their loved ones had been placed on house arrest at the hotel. The notice bore the seal of the Taocheng District Domestic Security Office.
There were four hotel rooms specifically used to hold Falun Gong practitioners. The five practitioners were each forced to sit in a metal chair 24/7, with their hands and feet cuffed to the chair. During the day, they were forced to watch TV programs slandering Falun Gong. At night, they were deprived of sleep, interrogated and ordered to write “repentance” statements to renounce Falun Gong.
Torture instrument: metal chair
Mr. Liu was released on bail on October 12, 2021 due to health reasons. Ms. Han was freed on November 4 that year. Mr. Han was taken to Jizhou District Detention Center on November 8, 2021. Ms. Li and Ms. Gao were transferred to the Hengshui City Detention Center on November 8 and November 19, 2021, respectively.
Continued Torture at Detention Center
Ms. Li was again restrained in a metal chair and deprived of sleep at the detention center.
Around August 2022, Ms. Li was twice slapped in the face with shoe soles by guard Ji Xiaoying for protesting the persecution of her. She was unable to open her mouth to eat for a whole month following one such slapping episode.
On another occasion, Ms. Li was shocked with electric batons.
The arresting officers later interrogated her again and attempted to make her admit guilt. They fabricated evidence against her and got her indicted. The Jizhou District Procuratorate then forwarded her case to the Jizhou District Court.
Family Barred from Attending Trial
Ms. Li appeared in the Jizhou District Court on March 30, 2023. Her family was not allowed to attend the hearing. It’s unclear whether her lawyer was present.
She testified against the police for torturing her and fabricating evidence against her, but the judge and the prosecutor both discredited what she said.
The judge didn’t call the prosecution’s witnesses to court to accept cross examination as required by law. He scheduled a second hearing for April 25, but it’s unclear if that ever took place.
Sentenced to 4.5 Years
Ms. Li’s lawyer and family received a copy of the verdict in late June. The verdict mentioned the following prosecution “evidence” used to convict her:
1) “The Falun Gong books confiscated from her home.” Her lawyer said that the police tallied the books without the presence of her or her family. Thus, it was unclear whether the number of confiscated items indicated in the verdict matched what was actually taken from her home.
2) “Ms. Li promoted Falun Gong to a student and several fellow teachers, who were all listed as prosecution witnesses.” Her lawyer said that the concerned student suffered from depression and Ms. Li simply comforted him as a teacher. The student and the few teachers mentioned didn’t suffer any harm from her conversations with them and should never have been listed as prosecution witnesses against her, much less sentence her to 4.5 years.
Family Plight
Ms. Li took up Falun Gong in 1995 and soon recovered from her numerous illnesses, including migraines, gynecological diseases, stomach problems, and foot pain. As she regained health, her bad temper improved. By following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, she also learned to take fame and personal gain lightly. She became more patient and caring towards her students and others.
After the persecution began in 1999, Ms. Li and her parents, both Falun Gong practitioners too, were repeatedly targeted for upholding their faith. Ms. Li’s husband couldn’t cope and divorced her around 2000. He was given full custody of their child, who was only around four years old at the time.
Ms. Li’s mother, Ms. Zuo Shuling, was once given one year of forced labor.
Ms. Li’s father, Mr. Li Huimin, served five years at the Jidong Prison. He had a stroke less than six months after he was released. He died on February 5, 2006.
Past Persecution
When the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Ms. Li was doing continuing education at Hebei Normal University (located in the capital city of Shijiazhuang) on her employer’s dime. As soon as she heard about the persecution that day, she went to Beijing (about a one-hour train ride) to appeal for Falun Gong. Her employer thus stopped her continuing education and ordered her to return to work.
Ms. Li went to Beijing six days later, on July 26. She was arrested and taken to the Changping District Shelter in Beijing. She was later brought back to the Jizhou District Detention Center and held for another fifteen days.
Her employer picked her up from the detention center on August 28, 1999 and held her for more than 50 days in an office on campus. Her parents were not allowed to see her. The school administrators had several teachers take turns reading to her newspapers articles smearing Falun Gong. They also ordered her to write “guarantee” statements promising to stop practicing Falun Gong.
In May 2000, Zhao Guosheng of the Jizhou District Police Department ordered officers Li Xuezhi and Yan Su of the local police station to arrest Ms. Li. They took her to the Jizhou District Detention Center, where Li, Zheng Baoxin, Wang Yuwei, and Zhang Xiangyang subjected her to the following electric shock torture.
They forced her to sit on the ground with her arms around her knees, before inserting a wooden stick through the cavities formed between her arms and thighs. They next cuffed her hands tightly and wrapped her thumbs with tape. They dripped water on her thumbs before shocking her with a high-voltage electric pack (the instantaneous voltage could reach 3,000 volts). They tortured her like that on and off for almost eight hours.
The Jizhou District government held a brainwashing class in March 2001 to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Li was detained there for more than five months, during which time she was temporarily held at the Jizhou District Detention Center for two weeks.
In the brainwashing class, Ms. Li was held alone in a room, with two people from her workplace watching her around the clock. She was not allowed to step out of the room and had to get permission before she could use the restroom. The walls were plastered with slogans slandering Falun Gong. She was forced to stand facing the wall and/or watch videos smearing Falun Gong. No food was provided in the brainwashing class and her workplace had people deliver meals to her every day.
When she was not held in the room, she was once cuffed to a tree by officer Wang Zhenxia. On another occasion, she was made to stand under the scorching sun.
In June 2002, Lyu Songyin from the Hengshui 610 Office went to Jizhou District to check if any local practitioners were still practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Li told him that Falun Gong restored her health, improved her temper and turned her into a better person.
Lyu ordered retaliation against her. Two days after he met with her, chief Sun Ju’an of the local police station and a few people from her workplace took her to the Hengshui City Brainwashing Center, where she was held for more than ten days. Zheng Genqi and Wang Changxin were in charge of the brainwashing center at the time.
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