After Being Imprisoned for Seven Years, Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Zhang Furong from Changsha City Arrested Again

Name: Zhang Furong
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Address: Changsha City, Hunan Province
Occupation: Former employee of the Changsha City Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Corporation
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 24th, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Guitang Police Station
City: Changsha
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, torture, fired from workplace

On February 24th, 2011, practitioner Ms. Zhang Furong from Changsha City, Hunan Province, was arrested by Guitang Police Station officers while she was posting informational materials about Falun Gong. A few hours later she was released, but, before they let her go, the police took her ID card, three bank cards, and 1,900 yuan¹ in cash without giving her a receipt.

Ms. Zhang was once sentenced to over a year of forced labour and later was sentenced to seven years in prison and detained in the Hunan Province Women’s Prison because she refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong. She was detained in prison for almost nine years.

The Hunan Province Women's Prison is one of the main places that the provincial government uses to persecute practitioners. Over 80 practitioners are still imprisoned there. In order to try to force practitioners to give up their belief, the prison uses many methods to torture them. They use sleep deprivation, standing for long periods of time, extended hours of forced labour, beatings, and other methods.

In April 2009, after being imprisoned and persecuted for seven years, Ms. Zhang was released. She had been fired by her employer, the Changsha City Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Corporation, during her imprisonment. Ms. Zhang had no income and had to rely on her relatives and friends to support her. She went to the office of the Xingfuqiao Community to apply for a low income allowance, but the community officials told her that she would have to write a guarantee statement before they would consider her case. Ms. Zhang refused to. In order to support herself, Ms. Zhang has had to rent out her home, and she, herself, stays with relatives or friends.

The police have arbitrarily taken her rental income, a bank card for paying her utility bills, and other personal belongings. Ms. Zhang has called Yuan Liren, the chief of the Guitang Police Station, several times to ask him to return her belongings. So far, Yuan Liren hasn’t given her a clear answer regarding returning her belongings.

Persons involved and their telephone numbers:

Country and area code: 86-731
Guitang Police Station in Changsha: 86-731-85580402, 86-731-85579237
Yang Yuehua, chief of the Guitang Police Station: 86-731-85659748 (Office), 86-731-85666786 (Home), 86-13975101477 (Mobile)
Policeman Wu: 86-13517476377
The Xinhe Street Office, Kaifu District, Changsha City: 86-731-84498054, 86-731-84475952, 86-731-84491402 (fax)
Feng Xinyue, the director from the Comprehensive Management Office

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/4/8/238706.html