(Minghui.org) Minghui.org recently confirmed that Ms. Xu Chunmei, from De’an County, Jiangxi Province, was sentenced to 1.5 years and fined 10,000 yuan on July 19, 2023 for speaking up for her faith, Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Xu Chunmei, 49, also known as Ding Chunmei, was arrested on June 18, 2021 while working in a pharmacy. Her home was ransacked and she was held at the Gongqing Lockup. The police said they arrested her after they discovered that she mailed Falun Gong informational materials and wrote letters to three government agencies, urging them not to participate in the persecution. The materials and letters were included as prosecution evidence against her when the Yongxiu County Court convicted her on July 19, 2023. Ms. Xu refused to sign her verdict and she maintained that she didn’t violate any laws by practicing Falun Gong or raising awareness about the persecution.
Ms. Xu took up Falun Gong in October 1998. She went to Beijing to appeal after the persecution began in 1999. She was arrested and held at the Fengtai Stadium. Officers from her local police station in De’an County traveled to Beijing and brought her back. They held her in the detention center and attempted to force her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong by threatening to detain her for extended periods of time. She refused to comply.
During her detention, the police broke into her home and confiscated all her Falun Gong books. Her drawers were left open and her clothes and comforters were scattered on the ground.
Ms. Xu was given a two-year labor camp term in 2000, when her child was only three years old. Unable to bear the mental pressure, her husband gave up practicing Falun Gong. Yet the police still constantly harassed the family. After living in fear for years, Ms. Xu’s father-in-law, who lived with the couple, struggled with ever-declining health and passed away in June 2010.
Ms. Xu was arrested again in April 2014 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She was held at the Jiujiang Lockup for 15 days.