(Minghui.org) It was recently learned that the Gaomi City Court in Shandong Province sentenced a local man to 2.5 years in prison, after previously giving his wife and their daughter the same prison sentence.
Mr. Qin Songfa, 70, his wife, Ms. Xu Xiuzhen, and their daughter, Ms. Qin Shaohua, all practice Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. The family’s ordeal stemmed from Ms. Qin’s latest arrest on May 31, 2022 for upholding her faith, Falun Gong. She was sentenced to 2.5 years around July 2023 and is now incarcerated at the Shandong Province Women’s Prison.
In order to seek justice for their daughter, Ms. Xu and Mr. Qin wrote more than 400 complaint letters to various government agencies. In retaliation they were arrested on November 7 and 8, 2023, respectively. Ms. Xu was sentenced to 2.5 years, followed by her husband’s sentencing (the exact dates of their sentencing remain unknown). Ms. Xu is likely still held at the Weifant City Detention Center and Mr. Qin is in the Gaomi City Detention Center.
For details of the couple’s and their daughter’s latest persecution, see the related reports listed at the end of this article.
Parents and Daughter Repeatedly Persecuted for Their Faith
Ms. Xu, Mr. Qin, and Ms. Qin began practicing Falun Gong in 1998. They were repeatedly targeted after the persecution began in 1999. Both Ms. Xu and Mr. Qin were previously imprisoned twice and their daughter served a one-year forced labor term. Below is a quick recap of their suffering over the years.
Mr. Qin and Ms. Xu were arrested on April 7, 2011 after they were reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. They were both sentenced to three and a half years.
Ms. Qin wrote complaints about her parents’ perpetrators and was arrested on August 24, 2011. She was then given one year of forced labor and brutally tortured during her detention.
Her parents were arrested on April 4, 2014 and detained for 38 days, during which time they were handcuffed and shackled, deprived of sleep, denied restroom use and kicked on the legs for a long time.
The couple was arrested again on March 5, 2016, by officers from the Xiazhuang Town Police Station. Ms. Qin hired a lawyer for them, but she was arrested on March 17, 2016 by officers from the Xiazhuang Town Police Station and the Gaomi City Domestic Security Office.
Ms. Qin managed to escape when the police took her home to raid the place. While she was in hiding, Mr. Qin was sentenced to seven months in prison and his wife was sentenced to six months.
Mr. Qin was arrested by four officers from the Xiazhuang Town Police Station around 8 a.m. on August 14, 2019 and was forced to undergo a physical examination during which a sample of his blood was collected and his fingerprints were taken. He was taken to a detention center around 8 p.m. and held there until August 21, 2019.
Four officers from the Xiazhuang Town Police Station, including Wu Fenggui, Liu, and Zhu, broke into Mr. Qin and Ms. Xu’s home at 8:15 p.m. on June 21, 2020 and arrested them. They were held in separate rooms at the police station and interrogated, before they were released around 3 a.m.
Three officers (one of them was named Luan Bin) from the Xiazhuang Town Police Station arrested Ms. Qin at work on November 13, 2020. Each of the officers was rewarded 3,600 yuan for capturing her. They laughed while they counted the bills in front of her.
Ms. Qin was held at the police station overnight and then taken to a hospital for a health exam. The police next held her at the Changyi Detention Center for 14 days, before taking her to a brainwashing center on November 27, 2020. She was held there for a few hours and released at 9 p.m.
It took Ms. Qin three trips to the Xiazhuang Town Police Station to finally get them to return her key, ID, bankbook, and social insurance card. The police, however, refused to return the more than 200 yuan they confiscated from her.
While Ms. Qin was in detention, two officers delivered a detention notice to her parents, on November 20, 2020. The notice was dated March 17, 2016. It dawned on her parents that the police targeted her again because she escaped four years ago.
Related Reports:
Shandong Woman Gets 2.5-Year Prison Term for Her Faith in Falun Gong
Husband and Wife Detained, Daughter Persecuted for Hiring a Lawyer
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