(Minghui.org) A native of Xishui County, Hubei Province, currently in Wuhan City in the same province, was recently sentenced to three years for her faith in Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Xu Lixiu, who was working in Wuhan as a housekeeper, was cooking at her employer’s home on October 12, 2019 when several police officers suddenly arrived and arrested her.
Although the police informed her employer about her arrest, they kept it from her husband. For the next several days, Ms. Xu's husband looked for her everywhere and finally found out that she had been taken to the Wuhan City No. 1 Detention Center. He also confirmed that Ms. Xu was arrested by officers from the Jiyuqiao Police Station of Wuhan and the Zhouwa Town Police Station of Xishui. The police claimed that she was on their wanted list.
After over a year of detention, Ms. Xu was sentenced to three years. She has appealed the verdict and is now awaiting the result.
In the past two decades, Ms. Xu, 55, and her family have been subjected to arrests, detention, harassment and home-ransacking for their shared faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Xu was first arrested in late 1999 and detained for 15 days for doing the Falun Gong exercises in public. The police also extorted 400 yuan from her.
Not long after she was released, Ms. Xu and several other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and were arrested and held at the Xishui Lockup for three months. She was released after being extorted for 700 yuan.
Shortly after, Ms. Xu went to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Gong, but was arrested after being recognized by the police at the train station. She was beaten by the Beijing police and sent back to Xishui. The Xishui police also beat her and gave her a one-year term in a forced labor camp.
The police began to harass Ms Xu again in August 2019. To avoid the ongoing harassment, she moved to Wuhan, only to be arrested two months later and sentenced.
Related report:
Ms. Xu Lixiu Recounts the Persecution that She and Her Family Have Suffered Since 1999
