(Minghui.org) Ms. Duan Xiuyun and Ms. Yang Fengyan were sentenced to prison by the Xinghe County Court in Inner Mongolia on December 30, 2016, for distributing Falun Gong informational materials.
Ms. Duan was sentenced to four years in prison and Ms. Yang was sentenced to three years. Their families appealed to the Wulanchabu City Intermediate Court on January 5, 2017.
The two women were reported while distributing Falun Gong informational materials in Xinghe County on August 30, 2016. They were arrested by officers from the Xinghe County Police Department.
The police ransacked their homes the next day.
The women were charged with “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a common charge used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to imprison Falun Gong practitioners in its persecution of the spiritual practice.
The Xinghe County Court tried the two women on December 9, 2016.
Their two attorneys from Beijing pleaded not guilty on their behalf. They pointed out that the charges have no legal basis and that the defendants were exercising their constitutional right to religious freedom as Chinese citizens.
The prosecutor, however, presented the Falun Gong informational materials confiscated from their homes. The attorney read a couple of articles from the informational pamphlet. One was about the health benefits of practicing Falun Gong and the other was about the persecution Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to in forced labor camps.
Ms. Duan and Ms. Yang also told the court that practicing Falun Gong and handing out Falun Gong informational materials are not crimes.
The two women are currently being held at the Jining District Detention Center in Wulanchabu City.
Earlier report:Falun Gong Practitioners Persistently Denied Right of Representation in Xinghe County
