Married Couple Sentenced to Prison for Their Faith

(Minghui.org) A married couple in Tianjin were recently sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Yang Jiangshan and Ms. Wang Mei were arrested at their respective workplaces on April 22, 2019. Their home was ransacked as well. Both of them were detained at the Beichen Detention Center. The Beichen District Domestic Security Office later submitted their case to the procuratorate.

The couple’s family recently found out that Mr. Yang was sentenced to 9 years and Ms. Wang to 5 years, but the details of their trial remain unclear.

Mr. Yang used to work at a research institute on gene functions. In the early stage of the persecution, he was given a term at the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp and lost his job. His mother sent clothes and bedding to him, but the inmate watching the gate withheld them without giving them to Mr. Yang.

At the labor camp, Mr. Yang and other Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to relentless torture and forced to do intensive unpaid labor. While they were working, the guards played propaganda demonizing Falun Gong at the highest volume. When a practitioner refused to listen to it, the guards ordered four inmates to hold the practitioner’s head and force him to listen.

To strengthen the brainwashing, the guards also forced the practitioners to recite the propaganda and write thought reports every day. Anyone who resisted was subjected to beating, verbal abuse and electric shocks. Despite the brutality going on here, the labor camp was awarded as a “Modern Civilized Facility.”

A guard deceived Mr. Yang’s mother into believing that they’d release her son as long as she persuaded him to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She went to the labor camp and knelt in front of Mr. Yang, begging him to write the statement. When Mr. Yang refused to comply, the guards shocked his neck with electric batons and yelled, “You are such a disrespectful, insensitive, inhumane jerk! We will shock you to death!”

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Liu Feng (刘峰), head of Beichen District Domestic Security Office: [phone]Pei (裴), officer of Beichen District Domestic Security Office: [phone]Guan Yuzhong (管玉忠), officer of Qixianli Police Station: [phone]Qi Jinxi (齐进喜), chief of Qixianli Police Station: [phone]Zhang Lei (张磊), presiding judgeZhang Xinxin (张欣欣), prosecutor