(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Liu Huiyun was tried for the fourth time by the Shunping County Court in Baoding, Hebei Province and was sentenced to four years and five months in prison on June 27, 2014. The case was retried after Ms. Liu appealed an earlier sentence and the Baoding Intermediate Court returned her case to the Shunping Court for lack of evidence and non-existence of witnesses.
During the trial, the judge ignored the strong evidence of innocence that Ms. Liu's attorney presented. She has been held in the Baoding Detention Center for two years since her illegal arrest.
Ms. Liu was arrested by officers from the Yaoshan Town Police Station for distributing truth-clarification materials about Falun Gong on May 19, 2012. The Shunping County Procuratorate approved the arrest on May 31.
At the end of 2012, the Shunping County Court secretly tried Ms. Liu at the detention center without notifying her family. Ms. Liu defended herself, stating that practicing Falun Gong is not illegal and freedom of belief is granted to every Chinese citizen by the Chinese Constitution. She pleaded not guilty. The first trial ended without a verdict.
The court again tried Ms. Liu twice in May 2013. They cited three villagers as witnesses and illegally sentenced her. All three villagers denied that they had testified.
Ms. Liu appealed the sentence at the Baoding Intermediate Court. The court sided with her and returned her case to the Shunping County Court for lack of evidence and non-existence of witnesses. But she did not receive the case returned notice until February 26, 2014.
Parties involved in the persecution of Ms. Liu Huiyun:Zang Guanjun (臧冠軍), chief of the Shunping County Police Department: +86-312-7621758Meng Shiahui (孟學會), president of the Shunping County Court: +86-312-7621252Cao Jinyao (曹金耀), Shunping County Procuratorate: +86-312-7625600Liu Lixing (劉麗星), chief of the Yaoshan Town Police Station: +86-312-7671077