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| Li Yufeng, a human rights activist, was given a Bible during her imprisonment. (Photo:ChinaAid) |
ChinaAid
(Zhengzhou, Henan—Feb. 25, 2019) On Thursday, February 21, Li Yufeng, a human rights activist, was released from prison after serving
a four year sentence given by the local court in a fake trial. During her imprisonment, she fought persistently for a Bible to read in the Henan prison.
Li Yufeng, who is about 60 years old, sued the Chinese government in 1990 because her house was twice demolished by officials. She won the lawsuit, but the verdict was not carried out and she was never compensated. In her perusal of justice through legal compensation, she reported the issue to the superior government. BY this, she offended the local authorities and was unfairly sentenced to two years on a charge of “disrupting public service”. After being set free, she continued to sue the local government. Consequently, she was sentenced to one and half year reeducation through labor.
Four years ago on September 30, 2014, Li Yufeng held a banner as she and others picked up a human rights activist, Yuan Dong, at a prison which read “Welcome Yuan Dong from a small prison to a big one” to satirize the lack of freedom in China. Thereby, she was put under criminal detention on a charge of provoking troubles until June 2015.
During her imprisonment, her health significantly declined. She was mistreated while detained at the Henan detention center. Li Yufeng said, “I fought multiple times. I wore foot chains many times at the detention center. I was transferred from one cell to another. Some people even hit me. Later I fought and even sacrificed my life, requesting that they should give me a Bible.”
She is a devout Christian and eventually got a Bible due to her persistence.
She proclaimed the gospel to other inmates and often read the Bible. Later she was transferred to another prison, Zhengzhou Women Prison, where she was deprived of the right of reading the Bible and forbidden to preach to other inmates.
When she shared the experiences with others upon her release, she credited her Christian faith as the reason she was not affected too much by her time in prison.
ChinaAid Media Team
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