(Minghui.org) A 66-year-old woman in Leshan City, Sichuan Province was sentenced to one year and eight months on September 8, 2023, for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. He Xiaoling’s sentencing stemmed from her arrest on November 2, 2022. She went to the Lyuxin Police Station that day to deliver Falun Gong informational materials to the officers there. They seized her and took her to the Suji Police Station, which dispatched agents to raid her home without a search warrant. The police confiscated a portrait of Falun Gong’s founder, a laptop, five music players, 9 calendars bearing Falun Gong messages, and other valuables.
Ms. He was released on bail hours later and summoned to the Shizhong District Procuratorate in April 2023 to sign some paperwork.
On September 8, 2023, several officers from the Suji Police Station seized Ms. He from home and took her straight to the Shizhong District Court to face the judge. She was never notified of the court hearing in advance.
Ms. He was convicted at the end of the hearing and taken to a local detention center right afterward. She went on a hunger strike in protest and was transferred to Honghui Hospital to receive IV drips while being watched by the police 24/7.
It’s been more than 20 days since Ms. He went on a hunger strike. She has become very thin and weak, but the police still kept her feet cuffed to the hospital bed all day long.
Ms. He is appealing her latest and second prison term. The same Shizhong District Court previously sentenced her to one and a half years on March 9, 2017, following her arrest in mid-June 2016 for talking to people about Falun Gong on social media. Her home was also raided that time, with her computer, music player, cell phone and more than 40 Falun Gong books confiscated.
Husband and Daughter Struggle to Fend for Themselves
Ms. He once worked as a reporter for Sichuan Business Daily and later worked in the department of the Leshan Giant Buddha [a world heritage site] Management Committee.
Her husband was a diplomat who worked in Japan and Canada before serving as a deputy consul in the Chinese Embassy in Melbourne, Australia. After returning to China, he worked in the Foreign Affairs Office of the municipal government. He had spastic torticollis (a painful condition in which his neck muscles contract uncontrollably and cause his head to twist or turn to one side). He was almost paralyzed. The couple’s daughter was severely injured in an accident after she graduated from college.
Despite medical treatments, Ms. He’s husband and daughter are still not fully recovered and struggle to take care of themselves. The latest imprisonment of Ms. He, their main caregiver, put them in a dire condition.
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