On January 21, 2010, Lixia District Court in Jinan City tried Ms. Fang Xiuzhen, a Falun Gong practitioner. Her family members were not allowed to attend. Her attorney and his firm were subject to pressure prior to the trial.

Ms. Fang Xiuzhen is Sentenced to Ten Years in Jail

Ms. Fang, 48 years old, used to work at a government owned auto repair factory but was laid off. Because she talked to people about Falun Gong, she was once sentenced to two years of forced labor and was held in the 1st Women's Forced Labor Camp in Shandong Province from 2001 to 2003.

During the 2010 trial, her attorney from Jinan defended her based on facts. Word by word and sentence by sentence he refuted the statute she had supposedly violated: "utilizing cult organizations to undermine the implementation of the law." Then the attorney asked the judge, "Why do so many countries abroad allow people to practice Falun Gong?"

Ms. Fang Xiuzhen refused to answer the judge's question. At last, Ms. Fang re-stated that she was innocence and would firmly maintain her belief.

Before the proceedings began, the court arranged for many police officers to be present around the court gate and forbid people from entering. They would not even allow Ms. Fang's husband, who is not a practitioner, or her mother to sit in the courtroom. Before the day of the trial, the court let the Lawyer Administration Office of the Justice Bureau call the law firm to threaten the attorney, placing great pressure on him.

The court and the 610 Office of Jinan City worked together to trump up charges against Ms. Fang, saying she violated the law by using her own money to prepare materials telling people the truth about Falun Gong. On January 29, the court notified her family that they had sentenced her to 10 year of imprisonment.