Ms. Lu Chengying, 68, Held in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison

Name: Lu Chengying
Gender: Female
Age: 68
Address: Baoquanling Farm, Hegang City
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 1st, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, interrogation, detention

Police broke into the home of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Lu Chengying around 7:00 a.m. on August 1st, 2012, and took her to the Baoquanling Farm Hospital for a physical. Ms. Lu was taken to the Heilongjiang Women's Prison in Harbin around 2:00 a.m. on August 2nd. Ms. Lu suffers from high blood pressure, and her family is very worried about her.

Ms. Lu was arrested a year ago on August 22nd at Ms. Li Guiyun's home. She was tried on April 19th, 2012, and sentenced to two years in prison on May 10th, but her physical condition disqualified her from being detained.

During the past year, Ms. Lu's blood pressure has remained high, with the highest reading reaching 250. Even though Ms. Lu is 68 and her health is not good, the police still took her to the Heilongjiang Women's Prison on August 2nd.

Prison officials informed Ms. Lu's family that they could visit her on August 5th. They deliberately postponed her release on medical parole, citing “rules.”

Ms. Lu is currently in Ward No.9. After three months, her family was finally told that they could visit her.

Background

On August 22nd, 2011, more than a dozen officers under the direction of Zhang Shupeng from Baoquanling Agricultural Reclamation Police Department climbed over a wall and entered Ms. Li's home. Two of them broke into the bedroom and held down Ms. Li's non-practitioner husband. Other officers entered the living room and arrested eight practitioners, including Ms. Lu Chengying and Ms. Li Guiyun.

Ms. Lu was interrogated and detained for more than 140 days. Her health worsened, and her blood pressure reached 240. To avoid being held responsible for her possible death, the detention centre officials extorted 10,000 yuan¹ from her before they informed her family to take her home on January 20th, 2012.

On April 19th, Baoquanling Agricultural Reclamation Court tried six practitioners: Ms. Li Guiyun, Ms. Lu Chengying, Ms. Zhao Hongyu, Ms. Qi Xiumei, Mr. Liu Hongbin, and Mr. Liu Gui. Lawyers from Beijing entered non-guilty pleas for all of them.

The court announced the practitioners' sentences on May 10th. Ms. Lu was given a two-year prison term.

Baoquanling Agricultural Reclamation police once again arrested Ms. Lu at 3:00 p.m. on May 11th and informed her family about her sentence the next day. Although the prison has refused to formally admit Ms. Lu because she failed the physical, she remains incarcerated.

Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison in Harbin City: +86-451-86639048, +86-451-86682458

Note

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