(Minghui.org) Ms. Xu Jingbo from Siping City, Jilin Province, was sentenced to five and a half years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Xu was arrested at home on April 22, 2024, by two officers from the Chengdong Township Police Station. They confiscated her laptop, about five Falun Gong books, several memory cards and about six flash drives. Her husband, Mr. Yuan Hongbiao, who also practices Falun Gong, was seized by the police too but his case status is unknown.

The police didn’t notify the couple’s daughter of their arrests until Ms. Xu was issued a formal arrest warrant. Her daughter later learned from various channels that she was sentenced by the Yitong County Court in either late December 2024 or early January 2025. She is currently appealing her verdict.

This is not the first time that Ms. Xu has been sentenced for her faith. She and her husband were both arrested in mid-April 2009 and later sentenced to prison, with Ms. Xu receiving 5 years and her husband 6 years. Their daughter was only an elementary school pupil at the time. Ms. Xu was released from the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on April 14, 2014 and her husband from the Gongzhuling Prison on April 13, 2015.

Ms. Xu was arrested again on January 30, 2016 after she was reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. She was taken to the Siping City Lockup and transferred to the Siping City Detention Center on February 2, 2016. The Tiexi District Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for her three days later and indicted her around late August that year. The Tiexi District Court sentenced her to four and a half years on December 5 and she was sent to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison in April 2017.