Shandong Woman Given Second Prison Term for Her Faith in Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old farmer in Rizhao City, Shandong Province was sentenced to four years for her faith in Falun Gong in early March 2022. 

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Cui Jianxiu was arrested on October 21, 2021, after being reported for giving a Falun Gong pamphlet to a janitor. The Ju County Domestic Security Office first submitted her case to the Ju County Procuratorate, which then forwarded it to the Wulian County Procuratorate.

Ms. Cui’s arrest dealt her 88-year-old mother-in-law a heavy blow. The elderly woman passed away a month later on November 14, 2021. Meanwhile, Ms. Cui’s husband, who has Parkinson’s disease, struggles to care for himself or take care of the family’s strawberry greenhouse.

Ms. Cui was tried by the Wulian County Court through a video conference on January 17, 2022. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her. 

The presiding judge, Yang Jie, blocked Ms. Cui’s daughter, son-in-law and son who specifically travelled from out of town to attend her hearing, outside of the courtroom, citing the pandemic as an excuse. Only Ms. Cui’s husband and brother-in-law, who live in the local area, were allowed into the gallery. 

Yang handed down a four-year sentence aganst Ms. Cui in early March 2022. She has appealed the verdict.

This is the second time that Ms. Cui has been sentenced to prison for her faith. She was previously given three years with four years probation by the Ju County Court in late July 2018. Weeks later, a staff member from the local justice bureau went to the Rizhao Detention Center in early August and asked whether she still practiced Falun Gong. As she answered “Yes,” the staff member ordered a retrial of her case and forced the judge to re-sentence her to a one-year prison term without probation. 

Ms. Cui was also arrested earlier on August 29, 2015 along with her younger sister Ms. Cui Jianai, for talking to people about Falun Gong at a local fair. Although she was released after over a month of detention, her sister was sentenced to eight years by the Ju County Court. 

Since 2018, the Shandong Province High Court appointed the Wulian County Procuratorate and Wulian County Court to specifically handle Falun Gong cases in Ju County and Wulian County. At least 13 practitioners, including Shi Weihua, Zhao Qiuwu, Wang Hongwu, Xia Fenghua, Zhou Degang, Sun Ping, Gong Hua, Wang Yanzhou, Yao Yonglun, Qu Zhengrong, Qu Zhenghua, Yang Jie and Han Gongying, have been sentenced since. 

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yang Jie (杨杰), presiding judge of Wulian County Court: [phone]Lu Wei (陆卫), judge of Wulian County CourtWu Zhaoqiang (吴兆强), prosecutor of Wulian County Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]Yang Sisi (杨思思), prosecutor of Wulian County ProcuratorateWang Guijun (王贵军), director of Ju County Domestic Security Office: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

Court Increases Woman's Sentence Upon Finding that She Still Practices Falun Gong