Falun Gong Practitioners Ms. Chen Yingmei and Ms. Zhou Yihong Sentenced to Three Years in Fuzhou City Women's Prison

Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Chen Yingmei and Ms. Zhou Yihong are both in their thirties. Ms. Chen lives in a residential district called Jinshan Bishui Zizhuyuan in Cangshan District, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. Ms. Zhou was working in the Settlement Department of Xingye Bank, which is located in the Xingyemajiang Building on Junzhu Road, Mawei District, Fuzhou City. They both started practising Falun Gong in recent years.

Ms. Chen and Ms. Zhou were distributing materials explaining the persecution of Falun Gong on a street in Fuzhou City on June 15th, 2010, but were reported and arrested by the local police. The police station reported their arrests to the 610 Offices (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) of both Fuzhou City and Fujian Province on the same day. The homes of both practitioners were ransacked that night and their personal computers, printers, and other materials were taken away. Their families are now in pieces; they both have very young children.

It was learned that Ms. Chen went on a hunger strike to resist the persecution and was hospitalised. The costs of over 2,000 yuan¹ were imposed on her family. The family also spent several tens of thousands of yuan hiring lawyers, etc.

Ms. Chen was approved for arrest by the Taijiang Procuratorate of Fuzhou City on July 21st, 2010, and she and Ms. Zhou were sentenced to three years in prison by the Taijiang Court on February 21st, 2011. They have been held in the Fuzhou City Women's Prison since May 2011.

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/2011/6/10/242224.html