(Minghui.org) Nine Kunming City, Yunnan Province, residents were illegally convicted on May 1, 2025 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Liu Cuixian, 73, was sentenced to four and a half years and fined 15,000 yuan.
Ms. Liu Xiaoping, 68, was sentenced to four years and fined 10,000 yuan.
Ms. Zheng Cuilan, 78, Ms. Ma Ling, 68, Ms. Li Huanzhen, 69, and Ms. Yang Huifang, 57, were each sentenced to three years and were each fined 10,000 yuan.
Ms. Zhu Yongzhen, 72, was sentenced to two years and fined 7,000 yuan.
Ms. Zhang Xiuzhen, 66, was sentenced to seventeen months and fined 5,000 yuan.
Mr. Bi Sheng, 62, was sentenced to fifteen months and fined 5,000 yuan.
The nine practitioners were arrested during a police sweep on June 6, 2024. The arresting officers from the Zongshuying Police Station submitted a joint case against them to the Xishan District Procuratorate. Prosecutor Zou Chengyun returned the case to the police twice for insufficient evidence, but the police refused to release the practitioners and submitted their cases for a third time on January 10, 2025.
Zou indicted the nine practitioners on February 8, 2025 and forwarded the case to the Xishan District Court.
Judge Yang Hui tried the practitioners on March 26, 2025. Only six family members were present at the trial. Other family members later said they either did not receive the trial notice or were not allowed to enter the courthouse.
Yang appointed lawyers to represent the practitioners. Some of them refused to use the lawyers who were instructed to enter guilty pleas for them.
During the five-hour long hearing, no witnesses appeared in court to accept cross examination. Prosecutor Zou did not present any evidence to support his charges against the practitioners, namely, “using a cult organization to undermine the law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.
The practitioners testified in their own defense and emphasized that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong or labels it a cult. They demanded they be acquitted, but the judge convicted them all on May 1, 2025.
Most of these practitioners were repeatedly arrested over the years for holding firm to their faith. Some were jailed and subjected to various forms of abuse, including being forced to sit on a small stool for 16 hours a day, being put in solitary confinement, being forced to do hard labor for more than ten hours a day, or not being allowed to purchase daily necessities. The long-term abuse damaged their health, with some suffering high blood pressure, heart failure, swelling and other symptoms. Even after they were released, they faced frequent harassment from the authorities. Some got their pensions suspended as well. Their latest prison sentences are yet another attack on their constitutional right to freedom of belief.
Related Reports:
Nine Yunnan Residents to Be Tried for Their Faith in Falun Gong
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