(Minghui.org) Three residents of the Guian New District, Guizhou Province, were sentenced to prison for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Zhang Tingxiang was sentenced to ten years with a 50,000-yuan fine. Ms. Zhang Wei was sentenced to eight years with a 30,000-yuan fine.Ms. Pang Ping was sentenced to three years with a 10,000-yuan fine.
Ms. Zhang, 58, and Ms. Pang, 62, both retired employees of a machinery factory, were arrested on April 18, 2019 while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. They were held at the Anshun City No. 2 Detention Center and their arrests were approved on May 25, 2019.
Mr. Zhang, 52, an employee of another machinery factory, was arrested at home on April 21, 2019, by over 30 officers. The police confiscated his Falun Gong books, computer, cellphone, and 80,000 yuan in cash. He was first held at the Pingba Detention Center and then transferred to the Anshun City No. 2 Detention Center. His family frequented the detention center to visit him, but was rejected each time and only allowed to make cash deposits for him.
The Nanming District Court sentenced the three practitioners on October 25, 2021. The presiding judge, Yi Li, has been actively participating in sentencing Falun Gong practitioners. She previously sentenced Ms. Tian Deyu, in her 70s, in 2018 and Ms. Li Yuanyou in 2020, both to three years in prison.
Past Persecution of Mr. Zhang
This isn’t the first time that Mr. Zhang has been targeted for his faith. Shortly after the onset of the persecution in July 1999, he went to the local government compound in December that year to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, only to be detained and have his home ransacked.
Due to constant harassment after he was released, his mother, Ms. Peng Yuanlin, lived in fear and passed away from the mental distress in March 2001. Mr. Zhang was arrested again two months later and given three years at the Zhongba Forced Labor Camp.
The guards arranged inmates to closely monitor the practitioners. The inmates would constantly beat and verbally abuse the practitioners, in order to force them to renounce Falun Gong. Some practitioners were denied sleep, sometimes for up to a week. Some were forced to stand for long hours under the baking sun or work 16 hours a day without pay.
In one torture, the labor camp guards forced the practitioners to wear thick winter coats and pants in the heat of the summer in August and September. They also forced the practitioners to wear shoes with protruding nails in them and ordered the inmates to drag the practitioners around or to force them to run. Those practitioners suffered severe injuries on their legs and feet.
The guards also injected the practitioners with stimulants, shone intense light directly into their eyes, shook them, and subjected them to high-decibel piercing sound.
The inmates sometimes wrapped rocks with cloth and hit the practitioners on their back, tendons, or ribs. These would cause severe internal injuries, yet the wounds to the skin wouldn’t be very visible.
Other torture methods included pulling pubic hair, burning the practitioners with lit cigarettes, force-feeding, electric shocks, hanging up by the wrists, tying the practitioners in spread-eagle position, solitary confinement or only allowing them to wear t-shirts and shorts in the winter.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yi Li (伊莉), judge of Nanming District Court: +86-851-85519085Tang Qin (唐亲), prosecutor of Nanming District Procuratorate: +86-851-33508203Liang Xiao (梁霄), officer, Guian New District Domestic Security Office: +86-851-88904875
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