(Minghui.org) A Suzhou City resident detained for her faith was released on February 14, 2017 after a local court announced that the charges against her had been dropped.

Ms. Xuan Xiaomei and four friends were arrested on March 30, 2016 while waiting to pass a highway toll booth on their way from Zhangjiagang City (an administrative subdivision of Suzhou) to Suzhou City.

They were tracked because they all refused to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.

While her friends were released one after another, Ms. Xuan remained detained for more than ten months.

Zhangjiagang City Procuratorate indicted Ms. Xuan on October 18, charging her with “using a cult to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the Chinese communist regime in its attempt to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.

Ms. Xuan’s family hired a lawyer to defend her constitutional right to freedom of belief, as no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong. They and local Falun Gong practitioners visited the police station, the procuratorate, and the court many times to urge them to stop participating in the persecution of Falun Gong.

The procuratorate soon returned the case, citing insufficient evidence. Chen Zheng and He Xiaodi, both Zhangjiagang police officers, however, threatened to take the case to court.

The procuratorate gave in and forwarded her case to Zhangjiagang City Court. Ms. Xuan’s family and local practitioners kept using various means to tell the procuratorate and the court to not prosecute innocent people for their faith.

The procuratorate finally decided to withdraw its indictment against Ms. Xuan. The court soon issued its decision in mid-February this year to set Ms. Xuan free.