Ms. Zhang Qiuyun Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Qiuyun was arrested six months ago. The Taocheng District Court of Hengshui City, Hebei Province sentenced her to five years in prison on January 20th, 2009. Zhang Qiuyun's family believes she is innocent, and is appealing for her.

On July 20th, 2008 at around 7:00 a.m., Yang Shushan from the Security Bureau and four policemen used the excuse of checking residence cards to break into Zhang Qiuyun's home. They confiscated all of her personal belongings. The policemen, claiming that they had been following her for seventeen days, took her to the station and tortured her on a tiger bench¹.

At 9:00 a.m., the police handcuffed her hands behind her back and later moved them to the front. They forced her to do slave labour, and she had open wounds on her wrists for a long time due to abrasion. The guards ordered three people to "transform²" Ms. Zhang from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The guards gave her a guarantee statement to give up Falun Gong to sign three times, but she refused, so they took her to the Taocheng District Court.

Li Wenpo is the presiding judge of the court. Ms. Zhang's family went to Li and asked for her release, but he refused; the family explained the facts about Falun Gong numerous times to him, but he wouldn't listen.

Her family appealed to other judges including Zhang Ying and Li Jichuan, but they were very rude and unreasonable, and refused to release Zhang Qiuyun.

Taocheng District Court
Director: Geng Guojie, 86-318-2818601(office), 86-318-2123336 (home), 86-13903184837 (Mobile)
Vice-Director: Li Jichuan, 86-318-2818606 (office), 86-318-7906016 (home), 86-13313089988 (Mobile)

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

2. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/2/4/194852.html