71-Year-Old Hubei Woman Sentenced to 3 Years for Raising Awareness of Persecution of Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Guihua, a 71-year-old retiree in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, was sentenced to three years for exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong.

Ms. Liu’s wrongful conviction stemmed from her arrest in late 2023 after a surveillance camera recorded her distributing Falun Gong informational materials in a residential area. The police looked at the videos and identified her. They raided her home and took her to the Erzhigou Detention Center.

After Ms. Liu was released on bail one month later, she was ordered to report to the Xincun Police Station every month. Officer Xiao Hongwei was in charge of monitoring her.

Ms. Liu was taken back into custody on July 10, 2024 and held at the Erzhigou Detention Center. The police said they were following up on her 2023 arrest. The Jiang’an District Procuratorate indicted her and the Jiang’an District Court sentenced her at an unknown time.

This is not the first time Ms. Liu has been targeted for practicing Falun Gong, which she took up in November 2000 and credits for resolving her numerous ailments. She was first arrested on December 19, 2007, by Xiang Mei, vice head of the Chenjiaji Brainwashing Center. During the 40 days she was held there, she was monitored by two people around the clock, including during meal times, when she slept and used the restroom. She was also not allowed to talk to other detained Falun Gong practitioners. Hu Shaobin, head of the Jiang’an District 610 Office, forced her to step on a portrait of Falun Gong’s founder.

More than twelve officers from the Xincun Police Station and the Jiang’an District Domestic Security Division broke into Ms. Liu’s home at 3 p.m. on July 7, 2011 and arrested her and her two guests, who were Falun Gong practitioners. The three practitioners were taken to the Chenjiaji Brainwashing Center. Ms. Liu was held there for 127 days. Her parents, in their 80s, repeatedly requested that she be released. They were also denied their right to visit her.

Following her latest arrest, Ms. Liu’s husband, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, is left to fend for himself. The couple’s daughter who is busy caring for her two young children on top of working a full-time job, struggles to find time to care for her father.