(Minghui.org) Four women in Shizuishan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region, were sentenced to prison on April 22, 2021, for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Yu Dezhen was sentenced to four years and fined 30,000 yuan.Ms. Chen Xiuping was sentenced to three and a half years and fined 25,000 yuan.Ms. Shi Meilan was sentenced to three years and two months and fined 10,000 yuan.Ms. Liu Cuimei was sentenced to three years and fined 10,000 yuan.
Ms. Yu, Ms. Chen, and Ms. Shi were followed by the police on April 30, 2020, as they were putting up informational materials about Falun Gong in a residential area. The police arrested them and ransacked their homes. Although the police released them later that evening, they secretly monitored the women afterward, including where they went and whom they talked to. Some of the photos they took were later used as evidence for the prosecution.
The police arrested the three women again on May 16, 2020. The fourth practitioner, Ms. Liu, was also arrested that day. To break into Ms. Yu’s home, the police removed the peephole in her door from the outside and then used a wire to reach in through the opening and unlock her door. The police beat Ms. Liu when they interrogated her at the station.
All four women were released on bail that same evening, only to be taken back into custody on July 27, 2020, and held in the Shizuishan Detention Center.
On January 12, 2021, the practitioners were tried by the Dawukou District Court via a video conference. They received their verdicts, dated April 22, on April 26. The presiding judge was Wang Yu. All four are appealing their sentences. Two of them have had their families hire lawyers to represent them in their appeals.
Related reports:
Four Ningxia Residents Tried for Their Faith in Falun Gong, Lawyers Threatened Before Hearing
Additional Persecution News from China – September 28, 2020 (19 Reports) # 4
Related article in Chinese:
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
