(Minghui.org) Three Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, residents were recently sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
The Linghai City Court sentenced Ms. Zhang Yufeng and Ms. Zhang Xiuying (no relation) to three years, and Ms. Wang Enying to one year. Ms. Zhang Yufeng filed an appeal to the Linghai City Intermediate Court.
Linghai City is under the jurisdiction of Jinzhou City, about 60 miles from Chaoyang. Both the Linghai City Procuratorate and the Linghai City Court have been designated to handle local Falun Gong cases since 2020, as a way to expedite the prosecution process.
The three practitioners were arrested by officers from the Gaotie Police Station on March 7, 2023, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong at a farmers’ market. Officers from the Beita Police Station and the Jinzhou Railroad Police Department raided their homes.
The practitioners were held at the Jinzhou City Women’s Detention Center after their arrests. The details about their indictment and sentencing aren’t available at the time of this report.
Past Persecution of Ms. Zhang Yufeng
Ms. Zhang Yufeng, a 54-year-old farmer, took up Falun Gong in 1996 and many of her ailments disappeared shortly after.
After the persecution started in 1999, Ms. Zhang tried to walk to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong (to avoid the police checkpoints in public transportation system). But she was intercepted in Yangshugou Township, Jianchang County, Liaoning Province, about 60 miles south of Chaoyang City. She was then taken back to Chaoyang.
Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal again on February 1, 2000 and was stopped by the police in Pingquan County, Hebei Province. She was also taken back to Chaoyang and held at the Chaoyang City Lockup for 30 days. Afterwards, the local police often came to harass her and her family members, causing tremendous disruption to their daily lives.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again by over 20 officers from the Beita Police Station on July 23, 2013, after being reported for hanging up Falun Gong banners earlier in the day. Her home was also ransacked. She was given 15 days of detention. For the next two years, officers from the Beita Police Station harassed her at home seven times.
Ms. Wang Enying’s Previous Prison Sentence
Ms. Wang was arrested in early 2003 for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was force fed after holding a hunger strike in the detention center to protest the persecution. She was later sentenced to three years in the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison.
Perpetrators’ Contact Information:
Song (宋), chief of Gaotie Police StationMa Liang (马量), president of Linghai City Procuratorate: +86-416-8191070, +86-416-8191067Zhang Fengwu (张凤武), president of Linghai City Court: +86-416-8152001
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
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