(Minghui.org) Two Kunming City, Yunnan Province residents were sentenced to prison around June 2022 for reading Falun Gong books together. One of them, Ms. Qu Yuexian, appealed the verdict. The local appeals court ordered a retrial of her case. Meanwhile, the prosecutor amended the original indictment against Mr. Qu, accusing her of being a repeat offender for having been arrested and sentenced before for practicing Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Qu, 86, and Ms. Liu Rongxian, 75, were arrested on September 28, 2021. The police broke into Ms. Qu’s home with the photo she took with a group of practitioners during their book-reading gathering on May 13 that year.
Ms. Qu’s Falun Gong books and informational materials were taken away. No confiscation list was provided. She was interrogated at the police station until 3 a.m. Due to her advanced age, the police charged her a 1,000-yuan bond and released her on bail.
Ms. Liu, who was also in the photo, had her Falun Gong books, informational materials, and several thousand yuan in cash confiscated. She was held at the Kunming City No. 1 Detention Center.
The police later submitted both women’s cases to the Xishan District Procuratorate. The Xishan District Court sentenced Ms. Qu to 1.5 years with an 8,000-yuan fine and Ms. Liu to three years with a 10,000-yuan fine. Ms. Qu appealed with the Kunming City Court, which then ordered a retrial.
On December 15, 2022, prosecutor Bai Liqiong of the Xishan District Procuratorate filed an amended indictment against Ms. Qu. Bai accused Ms. Qu of being a repeat offender, as she was once sentenced to 1.5 years with two years probation and a 5,000-yuan fine by the Jinning County Court in 2017. Ms. Qu was arrested another time on September 27, 2019 and detained for 15 days, also for reading Falun Gong books with other practitioners.
Related reports:Two Elderly Women Sentenced to Prison for Reading Falun Gong Books Together
Five Women in Kunming City Sentenced to Prison for Their Faith
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