Jilin Woman Sentenced to Three Years for Her Faith, Denied Family Visits

(Minghui.org) A resident of Changchun City, Jilin Province has been denied family visitation since she was admitted to prison on June 5, 2023 to serve three years for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Xu Bin’s sentencing stemmed from her earlier arrest on June 24, 2022, when several officers from the Weixing Road Police Station seized her off the street while she was out and about. They handcuffed her and took her back home to ransack her place. They then took her to the police station.

The police notified her husband shortly after 8 p.m. that night that she had been given 13 days of house arrest, and asked him to pick her up. He was also ordered to pay 3,100 yuan on her behalf to cover a fine of 500 yuan and 2,600 yuan of monitoring expenses (200 yuan per day) to be incurred during her house arrest.

The police summoned Ms. Xu, around 65 years old, to the police station on July 4, 2022. She went but never returned home. Her husband demanded her release. The police asked him to sign some paperwork and promised to release her in about five days.

Ms. Xu, however, was not released. She was moved to the Weizigou Detention Center on July 12 and issued a formal arrest warrant on July 18. Her case was submitted to the Chaoyang District Procuratorate on September 14, and then to the Chaoyang District Court on October 9, 2022.

It is unclear when Ms. Xu was sentenced to the three-year prison term. She was admitted to Division 8 of Jilin Province Women’s Prison on June 5, 2023 and has since been denied family visits for “refusing to follow orders.”

Seven Prior Arrests

Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Xu was arrested at least seven other times during the past 24 years of the persecution of Falun Gong.

She was arrested at work on July 12, 2001 and tortured during a police interrogation.

Agents from the Changchun City Police Department arrested her in December 2003. They released her days later, only to arrest her again on January 7, 2004. They tortured her for four straight days in the police department’s basement. She was later transferred to the Shuangyang Detention Center.

Ms. Xu’s fourth arrest was on October 28, 2005, by officers from the Puyang Street Police Station. They interrogated her with torture and later gave her an unknown length term of forced labor. She was brutally tortured at Team Six of Heizuizi Labor Camp. A guard notified her family in December 2005 that she was in critical condition. It was unclear whether they released her on medical parole.

Officers from the Puyang Street Police Station seized Ms. Xu from home on the night of April 13, 2007. She had a sudden relapse of her heart disease while in police custody. She had chills all over her body and twitched uncontrollably. The police hid in their offices instead of calling an ambulance or releasing her.

Ms. Xu was arrested a sixth time on September 17, 2009, while on her way to visit her mother-in-law. She went on a hunger strike in protest. She was driven to a labor camp on October 1 that year but was denied admission due to her extremely poor health. The police, however, refused to release her right away.

Her seventh arrest took place on September 13, 2020, after she was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong at Nanhu Park. Agents from the Weixing Road Police Station raided her home and took her to a local lockup, which declined to admit her due to her poor health. Only then did the police release her.