Ms. Zhao Guiqin Paralysed from Torture and Sentenced to Three and a Half Years in Prison

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhao Guiqin is from Donggang City, Liaoning Province. She was arrested in September and during her detention was tortured to the point that her legs were paralysed. On December 12th, 2008, the court secretly sentenced Ms. Zhao to three and a half years in Donggang Prison.

On September 25th, 2008, National Security Police officer Wang Runlong directed Jiangkun, the head of Heigou Village Police Station, and another policeman to break into Ms. Zhao's home. Without showing any identification, they arrested her, dragged her into a car, and brought her to Donggang Prison.

Ms. Zhao has been arrested by the Donggang City Police Department and its subordinate organizations many times since July 20th, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution of Falun Gong nationwide. Each time, she was released only when her life was in peril from abuse suffered in detention. Ms. Zhao regained her health later through practising the Falun Gong exercises. Her family members, who witnessed all this, know how good Falun Gong is. However, the CCP has not stopped persecuting Ms. Zhao. Her family is upset and angry over the persecution of Zhao Guiqin, but cannot do anything.

After learning that Ms. Zhao was again detained by the CCP, her seventy-year-old mother was extremely sad and worried because her daughter had been almost persecuted to death several times before. Accompanied by relatives, her mother went to the National Security Division in the Donggang Police Department to ask Wang Runlong to release her daughter.

On October 27th, she received a phone call telling her that Ms. Zhao was dying and her legs had been paralysed.

Around 9:00 a.m. on December 29th, Zhao Guiqin's family arrived at the Donggang Court. Wei Diandong, the person in charge, told them: "Since Zhao Guiqin could not walk, we had the court session in the jail."

Even though Ms. Zhao's legs were paralysed from persecution, the police, the prosecutor, and the Donggang City Court still refused to release her. The court refused to let any family members attend the trial and lied to them during the secret trial. After sentencing Zhao Guiqin and practitioner Mr. Song Jiwei to prison terms, the court did not inform the family members.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/1/23/194003.html