(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xie Jianping from Liaoning Province was sentenced to seven years in prison in the Jianping County Court on July 12, 2016, for practicing Falun Gong. She was tried for a second time by the Chaoyang Intermediate People's Court on September 22, 2016, but her appeal was denied and the sentence was upheld.
This trial was markedly different from the previous one. At the first trial, attendees had to register with their identification cards, submit to being searched, and allow themselves to be photographed or recorded on video. More significantly, the judge interrupted Ms. Xie’s defense attorney repeatedly.
None of this took place at the second trial, and the atmosphere seemed more open, which might have given Ms. Xie, her family, and other practitioners false hope.
Ms. Xie declared, "I am innocent" and asked to be released immediately.
The defense attorney argued that the law should only punish illegal acts and that having a spiritual belief is not a crime, that a citizen who adheres to a belief cannot be treated unfairly, because she is not violating any laws and therefore should not be punished.
Ms. Xie's attorney also argued that the laws have been abused to bring specious charges against Falun Gong practitioners. He challenged the prosecutor to identify any law that Ms. Xie had broken.
The spectators in the courtroom gave him a round of applause.
The prosecutor had great difficulty justifying the charges. He finally said, “Xie Jianping, you are receiving a pension provided by the Chinese Communist Party, but yet you oppose the Party.”
Despite her attorney’s strong arguments on her behalf and the prosecutor’s weak rebuttal, Ms. Xie’s original sentence of seven years in prison was upheld.
