(Minghui.org) An elementary school teacher in Baicheng City, Jilin Province was secretly sentenced to five years for practicing Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zang Zhongmei, 47, was arrested on February 16, 2020, for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police ransacked her home and confiscated her computer, Falun Gong books and materials, as well as some cash. Ms. Zang held a hunger strike to protest the persecution after she was taken to the Baicheng City Detention Center.
Her arrest was approved in late February, and she was sentenced in June 2020. She is now imprisoned in the 13th ward of Jilin Province Women’s Prison. More details about her remain to be investigated.
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Zang has been targeted for her faith. She was given one and a half years of forced labor for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in late 2000.
The police constantly harassed her and her family after she was released from the labor camp. Unable to bear the pressure, her husband divorced her and was given custody of their child.
Ms. Zang was also fired by the elementary school she worked at as she refused to renounce Falun Gong. She later moved from her hometown of Siping City to Baicheng (about 300 miles away) and did odd jobs to make a living.
