Cancer Patient’s Appeal Against Wrongful Sentence for Practicing Falun Gong Rejected

(Minghui.org) Ms. Qi Gui’e was twice sentenced by the same court in the past three years for practicing Falun Gong. While her first one-year sentence given in March 2020 was later voided by the court itself, she was handed down a new 3.5-year term in May 2022. Her appeal was rejected three months later. It is unclear when Ms. Qi, who has been suffering from an unknown cancer, will be taken into custody to serve time.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Qi, of Liangshan County, Shandong Province, was arrested at work on January 3, 2019. She was released on bail on January 18 after two weeks of detention. The police quickly submitted her case to the Liangshan County Procuratorate, which also expedited her indictment.

When Ms. Qi appeared in Liangshan County Court on March 28, she suffered a severe medical condition and fell during the hearing. The presiding judge, Huang Hongyong, adjourned the session within one hour.

Since then, the judge kept calling Ms. Qi’s family and questioned when she would be fit enough to stand trial again. She was arraigned on September 24, 2019.

Due to the extreme pressure from constant harassment, Ms. Qi’s husband was on the verge of mental breakdown and divorced her on November 26, 2019. The divorce came ten days after their older daughter gave birth to a baby. Their younger daughter was still in college and was about to take the entrance examination for graduate school.

Judge Huang harassed Ms. Qi’s brother on March 19, 2020. Six days later he announced to sentence her to one year. It’s not clear whether a trial ever took place.

Before Ms. Qi was taken into custody to serve time, she was arrested again on May 11, 2020, while studying Falun Gong’s teaching with other practitioners, including her mother in her 80s, Ms. Fan, around 90, Ms. Hou Yuelan in her 70s, Mr. Li Xiangsheng in his 70s, Ms. Chen Qiuxiang in her 50s and Ms. Wang Guirong in her 50s. All practitioners were released at around 1 a.m. and summoned to the police station again on the next day. All of their homes were ransacked.

Since February 2021, the authorities suspended Ms. Qi’s pension. The court also began to harass her sister and brother since March 24 and ordered them to take her to do a physical examination.

Not wanting her family to be implicated, Ms. Qi went to the court on March 30, 2021 and talked to judge Huang herself. She clarified the facts about Falun Gong and urged Huang not to participate in the persecution.

Huang claimed that her previous one-year sentence didn’t count anymore and she would be facing renewed prosecution from her May 2020 arrest.

On May 11, 2022, Zhang Xiaoxing of the procuratorate went to Ms. Qi’s home and questioned her about the May 2020 arrest. Zhang also harassed her daughter who had started her graduate study in another city through phone calls.

Days after the harassment by Zhang, the Liangshan County Court announced to sentence Ms. Qi to 3.5 years with a 6,000-yuan fine. It’s not clear whether the court held a trial. Ms. Qi appealed with the Jining City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict on August 15. It’s not clear whether Ms. Qi has been taken into custody at the time of writing.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Zhang Xiaoxing (张孝省), prosecutor of Liangshan County Procuratorate: [phone]Huang Hongyong (黄洪勇), judge of Liangshan County Court: [phone]Feng (冯), police officer: [phone]