(Minghui.org) It was recently confirmed that three residents of Daoli District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province had been sentenced to prison for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Li Jiwu was arrested at home on the morning of June 10, 2021. His bedridden wife was left to fend for herself. The arresting officers were from the Daoli District Domestic Security Office.
That afternoon, another group of officers from the Daoli District Domestic Security Office broke into Ms. Han Yaxiang’s home to arrest her.
Ms. Han, 59, suffered from late stage hepatic ascites before she took up Falun Gong. No medical treatments helped. She soon recovered shortly into her practice of Falun Gong. Since she broke no law in practicing her faith, she refused to be taken away. As the police tried to drag her outside, her husband, Mr. Zhao Junsheng, returned home and faced arrest as well. He also resisted the arbitrary arrest, and the police called in help. More officers soon arrived and took away the couple. Their more than 10,000 yuan cash, Falun Gong books and other valuables were confiscated.
After going through physical examinations required for detention, Ms. Han was taken to the Harbin City Second Detention Center (also known as Yaziquan Detention Center), and Mr. Zhao to a quarantine center, where he was held for 14 days. The couple were forced to cover their health exam fees and COVID-19 test fees. It is unclear where Mr. Zhao was held after the quarantine or where Mr. Li was taken after the physical examination.
The Daoli District Court later sentenced the three practitioners to prison, with Mr. Li and Mr. Zhao both receiving three years and Ms. Han one and a half years. The two men are now serving time at the Hulan Prison (located in Hulan District, Harbin). Ms. Han has been released after serving her prison term.
It is unclear when the practitioners were indicted, tried, or sentenced.
Long-term Police Monitoring Precedes Arrests
The three practitioners’ arrests came after the police had monitored them for a long time. Some other local practitioners were also arrested that way.
The Daoli District Domestic Security Office and the 610 Office have been monitoring local practitioners closely in recent years. The authorities would usually start from one or two practitioners that they deemed “high-value.” They’d dispatch different agents driving different private cars on different days to follow these practitioners. As the cars were equipped with tracking devices, everywhere the practitioners went was recorded.
With the information obtained, the authorities would then go after whomever the high-value practitioners had contact with. This tactic enabled the authorities to gather information about many practitioners. They’d then tap the phones of and shadow the other practitioners. When the authorities felt the time was ripe, they’d then order local police stations to harass practitioners at home, conduct group arrests or target a specific practitioner.
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