Detained and Sentenced to Three Years Imprisonment: Ms. Zhang Songmei from Beijing

In April 2007, Ms. Zhang Songmei, who is from Beijing, was reported and arrested while distributing Falun Gong Video CDs exposing the persecution in Beijing. After being detained for half a year, she was recently tried and sentenced to three more years of imprisonment.

Ms. Zhang, who is around 30 years old, is a resident of the Changping District in Beijing. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong, she appealed to the government to end the persecution a number of times. The police shocked her with multiple batons and force-fed her while she was on a hunger strike protest. She was only in her 20s, yet several times was on the verge of death.

In April 2000, she was sentenced to three years of forced labour for displaying a Falun Gong banner in Tiananmen Square. She was then detained in Xin'an Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing (now renamed the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp.) During the forced labour term, she was shocked with electric batons, beaten, deprived of sleep, and locked up in a solitary cell in the "intensive training" section. Guards brainwashed her and forced her to give up her belief in Falun Gong while she was not mentally stable due to the terrible conditions.

After her release, Ms. Zhang Songmei regained her clear mind with the help of other practitioners and continued to practise Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/1/3/169520.html