Shijiazhuang Falun Dafa Practitioners Zheng Hongjie and His Wife Zhang Lishan Still Under Persecution

(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Zheng Hongjie and his wife Ms. Zhang Lishan from Shijiazhuang were arrested on April 26, 2005, while distributing truth-clarifying materials. Police officers from Gexin Street Local Police Station in Shijiazhuang City illegally ransacked their home. Ms. Zhang Lishan taught physics at Hebei Normal University. Mr. Zheng Hongjie was an official at the policy research office of Hebei Provincial Party Committee. About one week after their arrest, they were both dismissed by their employers. They have been illegally held in the Second Detention Center of Shijiazhuang City for over a year.

Their parents have suffered a great deal from their arrest. Zhang Lishan's nearly 80-year-old mother fell ill in July 2005 and had to stay in a hospital. There has been no one to care for their son, and he has to go without meals every now and then. Sometimes he stays with his grandmother, and sometimes he stays home alone. He is quite depressed. He speaks very little and locks himself inside his room after school. Because both Mr. Zheng and Ms. Zhang were dismissed by their employers, they did not have any income. They have relied on help from their relatives and friends for all the expenses of their staying in a detention center and the living expenses and tuition of their son.

In the detention center, they were not permitted to study the Fa or do exercises, and were forced to do slave labor. When the workload becomes heavy, they have to work more than 12 hours every day. If they could not complete their quota, they were forced to work until it was done. Every day they were fed with cabbage boiled in plain water and pickles, and their three meals had hardly any oil. After a while, their skin started to crack due to malnutrition. Because she persisted in her belief, Zhang Lishan was once severely punished by the method of "Shang Jia" (two iron posts were fixed on the wall and the person's two wrists were handcuffed to the posts). They also put very heavy handcuffs and shackles on her for an extended period. As a result, her whole body ached, and she could not sleep. She even had difficulty taking care of herself.

On July 14, 2005, Zheng Hongjie was released. It is said that a senior official of Hebei Province became very angry after learning of his release and ordered his arrest again. On July 19, without any legal grounds, he was re-arrested. Now he is illegally held in the second detention center of Shijiazhuang.

The Xinhua area court and procuratorate are responsible for this case. The secret hearings of the husband and wife have lasted more than three months without results, but they are still imprisoned. During this period, their relatives and friends have been looking for an attorney to lodge an appeal for them. One attorney in Hebei Province accepted this case but several days later he was informed by "higher authorities" not to take the case. Another attorney said, "The are no rules in the law to prohibit the acceptance of this case, but the rules in Shijiazhuang prohibits the acceptance." Yet another attorney said, "If we take it, our office will be implicated." Moreover, when inquiring of several well-known attorneys, they all said, "We can only make a guilty plea for Falun Gong, but not an innocent plea."

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/5/19/128244.html

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