(Minghui.org) A 31-year-old physician in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province was sentenced to one and a half years with a 15,000-yuan fine for her faith in Falun Gong. She is now seeking to overturn the wrongful conviction and hold responsible those who arrested and indicted her without any legal basis.
Ms. Li Lixia, who graduated from Hebei Medical School, was illegally arrested on the night of March 25, 2024. Officers Yang Kun, Feng Xinchuan, Li Jiangtao, and Zhao Xiaoling from the Qiaoxi District Police Station, as well as officer Tao Yuhong from the Qiaoxi District Police Department, were involved in Ms. Li’s arrest and subsequent detention.
The Qiaoxi District Court held three hearings, on November 20, 2024, April 1, 2025, and April 24, 2025, before sentencing Ms. Li at an unknown time. She soon filed an appeal with the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court, demanding an overturn of the wrongful conviction. She also called for the five police officers mentioned above and prosecutor Zhang Shiyao from the Qiaoxi District Procuratorate, who indicted her without any legal basis, to be held responsible for their illegal actions.
In her appeal, Ms. Li reiterated the lack of legal basis for her prosecution. Prosecutor Zhang charged her with violating Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which states that anyone using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. China’s law-making body, the People’s Congress, however, has never enacted any law criminalizing Falun Gong or labeling it a cult. As such, there was no legal ground for the indictment and subsequent sentencing.
Zhang also cited as legal basis a statutory interpretation of Article 300 of the Criminal Law issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in November 1999. The interpretation required that anyone practicing or promoting Falun Gong be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. Ms. Li pointed out that a new statutory interpretation that replaced the 1999 version took effect on February 1, 2017. The new interpretation made no mention of Falun Gong and emphasized that any indictment against anyone engaging in a cult must be based on solid legal grounds. Since no enacted law in China labels Falun Gong a cult, Ms. Li’s indictment and subsequent sentencing based on the statutory interpretation lacked legal basis.
The prosecution evidence used against Ms. Li included Falun Gong books and other materials confiscated from her home. She condemned prosecutor Zhang for recording every bi-fold Falun Gong flyer as two flyers so that he could reach the minimum pieces of evidence required to file charges against her. Additionally and more importantly, the National Press and Publication Administration had long repealed its ban on the publication of Falun Gong books in 2011. Therefore, all her Falun Gong materials were her lawful possessions.
Ms. Li suspects that Li Yong (no relation), former president of the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court, might have intervened in her sentencing. China’s appeals courts have been known to mete out prison sentences for Falun Gong practitioners for trial courts, sometimes even before a trial begins. When the practitioners later file appeals, they simply get denied by the appeals courts.
Li Yong was recently removed from his position and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for interfering in judicial activities, using his power for personal gain, issuing unjust rulings, using his post to seek profit for others, and illegally accepting huge amounts of bribes.
Li was still the president of the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court when Ms. Li had her first hearing on November 20, 2024. She wrote in her appeal that she could not rule out his involvement in her prosecution. Now that a new president has been installed, Ms. Li hopes the appeals court will hold an open hearing to correct the trial court’s mistake and clear her name.
Ms. Li also suspects that judge Qi Jingjing of the Qiaoxi District Court, who sentenced her, might have been under tremendous pressure from Li to convict her throughout her prosecution. Her appeal did not seek to hold Qi responsible. She instead focused on prosecutor Zhang and the five aforementioned police officers.
Related Report:
31-Year-Old Hebei Physician Tried for Her Faith in Falun Gong
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