Non-Practitioner Couple Sentenced to Prison Because Wife's Older Sister Practises Falun Gong

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhou Fumei, 65, lives at Harbin City. On January 9th, 2004, she was arrested by police from a police sub-station when she visited her younger sister Zhou Fujun’s home. Her younger sister and brother in-law, who don’t practise Falun Dafa, were both sentenced to prison for 7 years just because their sister practises Falun Gong. (Treating innocent relatives of practitioners as criminals is a feature of China's "implication system," or "guilt by association." For more details, see (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/3/15370.html).

Zhou Fujun was 62 years old when she was first detained in Harbin City Detention Centre. Because the living conditions in the detention centre were so bad, her health quickly became threatened. Ms. Zhou developed pulmonary tuberculosis. Her brother in-law was 65 years old, and had high blood pressure and heart disease. He is now imprisoned in Hulan Prison. His son is in college, but as a consequence of his father’s detention, he has lost his home.

Presently in the women’s prison, there are 169 older people whose ages are from 60 to 74. They were sentenced to prison terms of 4 to 12 years. The women’s prison falsely tells outsiders that it implements humanity in its management, but actually the torture of the minds of Falun Gong practitioners is very serious.

A Falun Gong practitioner who is 64 years old persisted in her practice, so the police tortured her by way of sleep deprivation. This eventually caused the blood vessels in the elderly lady’s brain to leak, causing hemiplegia and paralysis on one side of the body. According to the medical examiner’s appraisal, as well as the law, she qualifies for release in order to seek medical treatment, but the police didn’t release her until recently, giving all kinds of excuses. At the end of March, the women’s prison established a "fortified group" specifically to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Group chief Tao Dandan of the No. 11 area mercilessly beat every Falun Gong practitioner who was imprisoned there.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/7/7/132396.html