(Minghui.org) A 55-year-old woman from Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province, is facing prosecution for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. You Quanfang was initially arrested on April 21, 2023, while visiting her daughter’s family in Lijiang City, Yunnan Province (about 500 miles from Pengzhou). The police suspected her of distributing Falun Gong materials and detained her for 15 days. They continued to monitor her daily activities and didn’t let her to go out unsupervised after releasing her on bail on May 5, 2023. She soon returned to her own home in Pengzhou.
The Lijiang Police Station called Ms. You’s daughter on July 4, 2023, and demanded that her mother return to Lijiang. Ms. You didn’t comply. On September 21, 2023, the street committee in Ms. You’s mother’s neighborhood visited the older woman and said that the Lijiang Police Station had sent them a letter asking where Ms. You was.
To avoid further persecution, Ms. You was forced to live away from home. Minghui.org has confirmed that she was arrested in late July 2024 and is being held at the Gucheng District Detention Center in Lijiang. Other details about her case aren’t clear.
Family’s Persecution
Ms. You and many members of her family, including her older sister Ms. You Quanfen, older brother Mr. You Quanming and his wife Ms. Xiao Danfeng, and younger brother Mr. You Quanfu and his wife Ms. Yang Qihui, all practice Falun Gong. Because they refused to give up their faith, they were all arrested and given labor camp or prison terms.
Mr. You Quanfu and Ms. Yang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in December 1999. Both of them were arrested and given labor camp terms. While they were detained, their four-year-old son, who was left at home alone, died in an accident in May 2000. The couple weren’t allowed out of the camp to take care of their son’s funeral or see him for the last time. On October 18, 2000, only five days after Mr. You was released from the labor camp, the Henda Pharmaceutical Factory where he worked, following orders from the local government, arranged for him to be taken to the Pengzhou Psychiatric Hospital.
Both Ms. You Quanfang and Ms. You Quanfen went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in April 2000 and each was then held in the Nanmusi Women’s Forced Labor Camp for a year and a half.
In June 2000, the 85 practitioners detained in the seventh team in the labor camp protested the persecution by doing the Falun Gong meditation every morning. The guards randomly picked a few practitioners each day and beat them. Ms. You Quanfang was pulled from the squad on June 22. The guards hung her up by her wrists to the window frame, her toes barely touching the ground. Then they beat her on the buttocks. She sweat profusely and almost fainted due to the pain. Her buttocks were severely bruised. The guards picked her for the beating again the next day. One guard slapped her in the face and another battered her with a wire, especially on her hands and legs. At noon, she started a hunger strike to protest the beating of another practitioner Ms. Li Fengqi. The guards attempted to beat her again, but relented when they saw the injuries on her hands and legs. They handcuffed her for half a day instead.
In July 2000, the guards began to force the practitioners to stand or squat at night and deprive them of sleep for doing the Falun Gong exercises. Ms. You was shocked with electric batons one morning for doing the exercises.
Mr. You Quanming and his wife Ms. Xiao were arrested in October 2007 while working in Lijiang. After one year of detention, Mr. You was sentenced to three years by the Lijiang County Court. Ms. Xiao was sentenced to five years. Prior to her prison sentence, Ms. Xiao was given 1.5 years of forced labor for going to Beijing to appeal in December 1999 and December 2000. She was arrested again in July 2002 and held in a brainwashing center for two years.
Ms. You Quanfang and Ms. Xiao were arrested again on April 9, 2015, while they were doing business in Lijiang. A customer reported them for using paper currency with information about Falun Gong printed on the bills, a way to raise awareness about the persecution due to strict censorship in China. While being held at the Gucheng District Detention Center, they refused to answer questions put to them by the Gucheng District Domestic Security Division and insisted that they didn’t violate any law in practicing Falun Gong. The police submitted their cases to the Gucheng District Procuratorate. The Gucheng District Court heard their cases on September 22 and again on December 15, 2015. Ms. You was sentenced to one year and Ms. Xiao to one and a half years.
Related Report:
Sichuan Practitioners You Quanfang and Xiao Danfeng Detained Again
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