(Minghui.org) A Jianli City, Hubei Province, resident was recently jailed after she was secretly sentenced to two years for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
The ordeal of Ms. Liu Qionghua, also known as Liu Shenghua, stemmed from her arrest on October 25, 2021, after she was reported for putting up information about Falun Gong in Zhuhe Town. Officers of the Zhuhe Town Police Station took photos of the posters she put up. Kong Xiangxue, the deputy director of the Jianli City Domestic Security Office threatened to submit her case to the procuratorate. She was released on bail in the evening.
Ms. Liu was arrested again on July 2, 2022, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong materials in Chengji Town. The police printed three pieces of paper with the quantities of flyers confiscated from her and ordered her to sign them. When she told them she didn’t know how to write, the police forced her to fingerprint the documents, as well as two additional pieces of blank paper. She was released on bail shortly after.
The police later submitted Ms. Liu’s case to the Jianli City Procuratorate. The prosecutor Zhan Fengdong summoned her multiple times. He also threatened to prevent Ms. Liu’s daughter, Ms. Zhu Li, a teacher, from working anymore. Fearful of the persecution, Ms. Liu’s relatives gathered at her home and worked with the police, trying to pressure her into renouncing Falun Gong.
The police called Ms. Liu for a physical examination on February 17, 2023. She went to the police station, only to be arrested and taken to the Jianli City Detention Center. Her family hired a lawyer to enter a guilty plea for her. When local Falun Gong practitioners offered to help with her case, her family rejected them.
Ms. Liu’s family were summoned to the detention center on November 16, 2023. They thought the court was going to have a hearing there, but were shocked to be told that she had been already been sentenced to two years by the Jianli City Court. As she would be taken to a prison in another city that day, the court arranged her family to have a brief video chat with her. It’s not clear whether she was represented by the lawyer when she was sentenced.
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