Woman’s Lawyer Files Motion to Reconsider Her Unjust Sentence

(Minghui.org) Due to Ms. Zhang Xia’s lawyer’s persistent efforts, the court finally accepted her motion to reconsider the five-year sentence she was given for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Zhang of Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, was arrested on September 22, 2020, with two other practitioners, Ms. Zhang Xiuling and Ms. Xing Guohua. The police claimed that they’d followed the three women for over two months and took pictures of them distributing Falun Gong materials. The photos were later submitted as prosecution evidence. The police alleged that they had given out 800 leaflets during that time.

The women appeared in the Zhangbei County Court on September 23, 2021. The judge announced their verdicts on May 6, 2022. Ms. Zhang Xia was sentenced to five years with a 30,000-yuan fine, Ms. Zhang Xiuling was given four years with a 20,000-yuan fine, and Ms. Xing Guohua, 75, was sentenced to three years and fined 20,000 yuan.

Ms. Zhang appealed to the Zhangjiakou City Intermediate Court, which refused to accept her case. In June 2022, her family hired a lawyer to file the motion to reconsider. Her family said that the five-year sentence was too long and that she didn’t do anything wrong—she simply gave people information. Neither Ms. Zhang nor her husband has a full-time job, and the 30,000-yuan fine would devastate their family financially. Most importantly, she should never have been sentenced or fined for exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief in the first place.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Gong Liqiu (龚立秋), head of the police department: [phone], [phone]Pang Xi (庞喜), head of the Domestic Security Office: [phone], [phone]Zhao Lijun (赵立军), presiding judge, Zhangbei County Court: [phone]Wu Yongqiang (武永强), prosecutor, Zhangbei County Procuratorate: [phone]Feng Qiang (冯强), secretary of the Zhangbei County Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone]

Related reports:

Daughter of Falun Gong Practitioner Finally Allowed to See Her After Filing Complaints against Detention Center

Three Hebei Women, Including a 75-year-old, Sentenced to Prison for Their Faith