(Minghui.org) A Xianghe County, Hebei Province resident was sentenced to four years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Li Xiuqin, 58, a retiree of Shuyang Town Government, has been repeatedly arrested in the past 20 years for refusing to give up her faith. Her latest arrest was on August 5, 2018 at a wholesale market. The police ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books, computer, and printer. Several of her debit cards and the cash she kept at home were also taken away.
The police also arrested her husband and kept him in custody for a few hours.
After nearly nine months of detention at Sanhe City Detention Center, Ms. Li appeared in Xianghe County Court in April 2019 and was sentenced to prison with a 20,000-yuan fine on September 29, 2019.
She has appealed the verdict.
Ms. Li's family hired a lawyer to represent her. But the lawyer later withdrew from her appeal case after being pressured by the authorities.
It was reported that Ms. Li was forced to do long hours of unpaid labor at the detention center, including making artificial flowers and folding joss paper. During the time when there was no work to do, the guards forced her and other inmates to sit on a long wood bench without moving for hours. Some inmates' buttocks festered as a result.