(Minghui.org) A woman in Huainan City, Anhui Province, was secretly sentenced to prison for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Xia Zehong was arrested on February 3, 2020, while she was distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police confiscated the materials she had and impounded her electric motorcycle.
Without showing their IDs, a dozen plainclothes officers ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books, copy machine, four cellphones, a tablet, media player, and 17,300 yuan in cash. Two of her cellphones were later returned.
Ms. Xia was taken to the Tian District Police Station for interrogation. Due to her health, she was ineligible for detention and was released that evening.
Ms. Xia was summoned to the police station on August 3 and told that the police had submitted her case to the procuratorate.
After the court scheduled a hearing through an online conference on December 14, 2020, Ms. Xia raised an objection. She questioned the feasibility of cross-examining the evidence in a virtual hearing. The court later tried her secretly and sentenced her to six years. She has appealed the verdict with the Huainan City Intermediate Court.
