(Minghui.org) Four Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province residents were sentenced on August 25, 2023 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Luan Dewu, Ms. Wang Li, Ms. Liu Guijie, and Mr. Zhang Qian were arrested on February 6, 2023 and appeared in the Gongzhuling City Court on July 10. They were all convicted on August 25, with Mr. Luan receiving four years. The other three practitioners were each sentenced to three years.
Mr. Luan previously served a four-year term between 2008 and 2012.
Arrests, Detention, and Trial
The four practitioners were arrested by officers of the Shuanglong Town Police Station on February 6, 2023 and taken to the Gongzhuling City Lockup to serve a 13-day administrative detention.
Ms. Liu developed dangerously high blood pressure and irregular heartbeat, and was taken to the Gongzhuling Central Hospital. Mr. Zhang was taken to the Jilin Guowen Hospital (located in Gongzhuling) after he held a hunger strike for six days.
An officer from the Shuanglong Town Police Station contacted Ms. Liu’s family on February 11 and told them that they were planning to release her. But when the family rushed to the hospital the next morning, the police changed their minds. They said that they weren’t in charge of her case and directed the family to the Gongzhuling City Domestic Security Office if they had any questions about her case.
On February 19, the lockup called the four practitioners’ families and asked them to pick up their loved ones the next morning at 8:30 a.m. Before the practitioners’ families arrived, however, the police came in the early morning hours and took Mr. Luan and Ms. Wang to the Jilin Guowen Hospital for physical examinations.
The police also ordered both the Jilin Guowen Hospital and the Gongzhuling Central Hospital to discharge Mr. Zhang and Ms. Liu on February 19.
All four practitioners were taken to the Jiutai City Detention Center that evening for criminal detention. Ms. Liu, Mr. Zhang and Ms. Wang were all denied admission due to their poor health. The police had to take the three of them back to Gongzhuling.
The police took Ms. Liu, Mr. Zhang and Ms. Wang to the Gongzhuling Central Hospital for another physical examination on February 21, before forcing the Jiutai City Detention Center to accept them for a short quarantine. The three practitioners were later transferred to the Gongzhuling City Detention Center, while Mr. Luan remained at the Jiutai City Detention Center.
All four practitioners were issued formal arrest warrants in April 2023.
On July 5, the Gongzhuling City Court called the families of Ms. Wang, Ms. Liu and Mr. Zhang, saying that each practitioner could only have two family members attend the hearing to be held five days later. Additionally, the family members must present proof from relevant government agencies stating that they do not practice Falun Gong themselves. At the time of this report it’s unclear if Mr. Luan’s family was ever notified of the upcoming court hearing.
The details of the four practitioners’ hearing on July 10 remain to be investigated. It is also unclear whether they are still being held in the Gongzhuling City Detention Center or have been admitted to prison.
Past Persecution of Mr. Luan
Mr. Luan, 56, began practicing Falun Gong in late 1998 and was soon able to quit smoking, drinking, and gambling. His stubborn leg pain and stomach problems also disappeared. His wife, Ms. Geng Wanying, joined him in practicing Falun Gong.
The couple were both arrested in August 2005 by agents from the Gongzhuling City Domestic Security Office and 610 Office. They were detained for 15 days, during which time the police raided their home and confiscated their Falun Gong books, DVD player, music player and other personal items.
The couple lived away from home after they were released, only to be arrested again in their rental place on April 26, 2008, by police from both Gongzhuling City and Siping City. The arresting officers confiscated the couple’s Falun Gong books, printer, computer, three sacks of rice and one bag of flour. They tied up Mr. Luan and carried him into their cruiser. Two officers then sat on him, to increase his suffering.
At the Gongzhuling City Police Station, Mr. Luan and Ms. Geng were interrogated with torture. The police restrained Mr. Luan in a metal chair and put a hood over his head (see image below). One officer hit him on the chest, causing severe internal injuries. Six months later his chest still hurt. He was tortured for more than ten hours, during which time he was not allowed to use the restroom.
Torture illustration: restrained in a metal chair with a hood over one’s head
The couple was taken to the Gongzhuling City Detention Center after the interrogation. In October 2008, Mr. Luan was transferred to Jilin Province Second Prison and Ms. Geng to the Heizuizi Women’s Prison. Ms. Geng was not given a blanket and was only allowed one phone call to her family. Only then did they learn that both she and Mr. Luan were each sentenced to four years for practicing their faith.
Mr. Luan was taken to the education ward of Jilin Province Second Prison on October 30, 2008 for intensified brainwashing. For seven days straight, he was forced to read, watch and listen to materials slandering Falun Gong. He held firm to his faith and was then subjected to about three weeks of “traditional culture education” aimed to expose him to other religions and make him renounce Falun Gong.
Mr. Luan never wavered in his faith. On October 19, 2009, he and three other jailed practitioners, including Mr. Zhu Dexiang, Mr. Ma Desheng, and Mr. Shi Wenzhuo, wrote a letter to the prison authorities, demanding their immediate and unconditional release. They also asked the prison to stop torturing practitioners or ordering them to wear prisoners’ uniform or attend political studies since they were not criminals.
The prison responded by subjecting the four practitioners to even more cruel torture.
Mr. Zhu, then in his 60s, was forced to wear handcuffs and shackles for 12 days, with the cuffs and shackles linked together (see image below). He went on a hunger strike in protest and was force fed high-concentration saline water, cornmeal paste and unknown liquid drug four times each day. Li Yijiao, prison affairs section chief, also savagely kicked Mr. Zhu in his face and body. His face was injured and three of his teeth were knocked out.
Torture illustration: Handcuffed and shackled
Mr. Shi was held in solitary confinement for 112 days, and was shackled for three days.
Mr. Ma was held in solitary confinement for 100 days, shackled for one week, and force fed four times.
Mr. Luan was held in solitary confinement for 64 days, shackled for one week and force fed once. At one point, the guards also handcuffed him, with the cuffs linked to his shackles, just like what they did to Mr. Zhu. The cuffs and shackles remained even when they slept. Mr. Luan was later moved to another team, where he was forced to sit on a small stool motionless, during the day every day for more than two months.
On another occasion, a guard discovered a Falun Gong book in Mr. Luan’s bed and put him in solitary confinement for 15 days.
Past Persecution of Ms. Liu Guijie
Ms. Liu, 60, used to be headstrong and dominant. Once her daughter was bullied at school by another student. Ms. Liu almost fought with that student in the classroom, if the teacher hadn’t stopped her. After she took up Falun Gong, she became a forgiving and considerate person.
Ms. Liu had a storefront with her family living in the same building. At one point she opened a restaurant there and enjoyed a good business. As some of her customers sometimes parked their cars in front of her neighbor’s home, her neighbor charged her a lot for the parking. Ms. Liu later turned her restaurant into a healthcare product shop and her neighbor opened a car repair shop. She never charged the neighbor when his customers parked in front of her place.
When the COVID pandemic broke out in 2020, Ms. Liu never raised the price of the masks and sometimes gave out masks for free.
Because Ms. Liu refused to renounce Falun Gong, she has been repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith.
She was arrested on December 4, 2009 for talking to people about Falun Gong and given 1.5-year term at Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She suffered all kinds of torture and developed dangerously high blood pressure.
On July 28, 2010, the labor camp notified Ms. Liu’s family that she had suffered a heart attack and was sent to the Tiebei Police Hospital. She was taken back to the labor camp the next day. Her family visited her that day and noted that she was emaciated and could no longer stand on her own. She had to be supported by two people at all times. She told her family that she was given an injection at the hospital the day before and soon felt waves of chest pain.
Her family requested medical parole and she was released in early August 2010.
The police stayed outside of Ms. Liu’s home for several days in July 2014 to monitor her.
Upon finding out that local Falun Gong practitioners filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Communist Party who ordered the persecution, the police arrested several of them around 5 a.m. on October 21, 2015. Ms. Liu managed to escape.
Two officers harassed Ms. Liu on June 24, 2020 and asked her whether she still practiced Falun Gong. They also asked for her phone number and threatened her not to go out to put up information about Falun Gong or appeal for it.
The police returned on October 12, 2020 with a government official and ordered Ms. Liu to sign a statement renouncing Falun Gong. They threatened to visit her every week if she didn’t comply.
She was harassed two more times, on September 11 and December 15, 2021, respectively.
Related Reports:
Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province: Four Residents Face Trial for Their Shared Faith in Falun Gong
Four Jilin Residents Detained for a Month and Counting, Three Suffering Medical Conditions
Related Report in Chinese:
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