(Minghui.org) A 70-year-old resident of Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, was sentenced to nine years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999. Ms. Ma Yunhua is planning to file a motion to have her case reconsidered after her appeal was recently rejected.
Ms. Ma Yunhua’s family learned on April 26, 2020, that the Xi’an City Intermediate Court had upheld her sentence, which was announced five months after a hearing on November 27, 2019.
The judge, Luo Chengxing, frequently interrupted Ms. Ma’s lawyer during the appeal hearing when the latter entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf. Ms. Ma also testified in her own defense and said that she didn’t violate any law in trying to be a good person by following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
Prior to the appeal hearing, Lei She, the Xi’an City Procuratorate prosecutor, threatened to report Ms. Ma’s lawyer to the Justice Bureau in Beijing in retaliation for defending her.
Ms. Ma was arrested on February 6, 2018. She appeared in the Lianhu District Court on November 1, 2018, and was sentenced to nine years with a 20,000-yuan fine on August 22, 2019.
Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Ma was repeatedly arrested for her faith. She served one year in a forced labor camp and seven years in prison. She was subjected to various forms of torture, including savage beatings, suffocation, being hung up, and restricted use of the restroom.
Related reports:
After Eight Years of Incarceration, 70-year-old Woman Given Another Nine Years for Her Faith
Nationwide Arrest Warrant Issued for Ms. Ma Yunhua After Suffering 7 Years of Torture in Prison
Ma Yunhua Brutally Tortured at Shaanxi Province Women's Prison
