(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on the 14-month prison sentence of Ms. Chen Xuefen in 2023, but new information that came in confirmed that she had actually been sentenced to three years in 2024.
Ms. Chen, a 57-year-old resident of Zhucheng City, Shandong Province, was arrested on July 24, 2023 together with 13 other locals for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.
The Zhucheng City Court sentenced Ms. Chen to three years on September 17, 2024. Two other practitioners targeted in the same police sweep were also convicted by the same court that day, with Mr. Gong Shanlun given one year and Ms. Zhao Jin’e given one year with two years probation. Another practitioner, Ms. Liu Shuhua, was sentenced to three years following a hearing on April 19, 2024.
Ms. Chen took up Falun Gong in January 1997 and soon recovered from her decades-long back pain problem. After the persecution began two years later, she held firm to her faith and was repeatedly arrested and previously given two forced labor terms.
Ms. Chen went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in late 1999 and was arrested. She was detained for two weeks after being taken back to Zhucheng City. Her family had 2,300 yuan extorted from them in exchange for her release. The local village government dispatched people to monitor her, especially during holidays. Once she was working in her courtyard when village head Li Hengjun led officer Jin and a few others to arrest her. They kept her and three other local Falun Gong practitioners in a room without heat in the village government building for several days. At night, the practitioners could only sleep on benches with no blankets.
The police showed up at Ms. Chen’s home in April 2001, but she managed to escape. Her son was not even two at the time. Vice captain Cao Jinhui and several officers frequently harassed her husband and her parents when she was away. She returned home about two months later, only to be arrested in December 2001 while visiting her parents. She was soon given three years of forced labor. Her brother had over 20,000 yuan extorted from him by the police and the labor camp guards, hoping to alleviate the torture she suffered.
Ms. Chen was arrested again in March 2009. The police gave her an unknown forced labor term but ended up releasing her after the local labor camp declined to admit her due to her poor health.
The police broke into Ms. Chen’s home on May 2, 2018 and arrested her. She was detained for seven days.
Weifang City, Shandong Province: 13 Arrested in One Day, One Has Been Sentenced
Arrested in a Police Sweep, Shandong Woman Gets 3 Years for Practicing Falun Gong