Husband and Wife Sentenced to Eight Years of Imprisonment

Mr. Liu Xuegang and Ms. Zhong Li, a husband and wife from Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province were arrested on May 14th, 2009, and sentenced to eight years in prison by the Jiguan District Court on November 10th, 2009. The couple had previously experienced persecution before they eventually got married in 2007. They are currently subjected to long-term incarceration.

Ms. Zhong Li, 44, is currently in the Heilongjiang Women's Prison. She was first held in the Intensive Training Team where guards and criminal inmates verbally and physically abused her, forced her to read materials slandering Falun Gong, and coerced her to write a “guarantee statement” to renounce her faith. Ms. Zhong was later transferred to Ward No. 11 where several inmates were assigned to monitor her all day long. As a method of torture, they forced her to sit on a small stool for long periods of time, and denied her toilet use. Ms. Zhong is currently in Ward No.12.

Mr. Liu Xuegang, 42, was taken to Jiamusi Prison in April 2010. His family tried to visit him three times but each time were turned away by the prison officials. Mr. Liu's older brother was eventually allowed to visit Mr. Liu, and saw that Mr. Liu's eyes were swollen due to beating.

Mr. Liu was previously arrested and tortured in May 2001 by officers from the Hengshan District Police Department. He was held in the Jixi No.1 Detention Centre and given a three-year forced labour term. His mother was so grief-stricken that she became seriously ill and was bed-ridden. She wasn't able to see her son before she passed away. Mr. Liu was arrested again in 2009. His father, in his 70s, was hospitalised for lung cancer at that time. He repeatedly asked, “Why don't they (Mr. Liu and his wife) come to see me?”

Ms. Zhong was previously arrested three times by the Jixi police. She was subjected to three years in the Harbin Rehabilitation Centre since 2003. She was hung up, deprived of sleep and violently beaten during her detention.

Ms. Zhong's older brother suffers from a mental problem and is unable to take care of himself. Her 72-year-old mother suffers from cerebellar atrophy, and needs help using the toilet. Ms. Zhong always took good care of her mother, then she was arrested and imprisoned. Her mother waited for her to return all day at the gate, and cried whenever she thought of her daughter. Grieving for her daughter, she passed away. Ms. Zhong's father, in his 80s, has to take care of his mentally ill son, and they lead a hard life.

Related article: “Three Practitioners in Jixi City Receive Heavy Sentences” (http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/1/19/114000.html )

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/12/1/250045.html