(Minghui.org) Two women in Dandong City, Liaoning Province, were sentenced to 2.5 years each on November 29, 2024, for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhao Honge, 57, and Ms. Zhang Shujie, 59, were arrested by Xicheng Police Station officers on May 22, 2024, and held in the Dandong City Lockup. A third practitioner, Ms. Yu Hua, was also arrested and had her home ransacked, but she wasn’t detained or charged.
Ms. Zhao and Ms. Zhang’s families hired lawyers for them, but when the lawyers went to the lockup to visit them, the guards turned them away, citing orders from the police. The two women were later transferred to the local detention center and had their arrests approved on June 25, 2024. They were indicted by the Zhen’an District Procuratorate and had their case transferred to the Zhen’an District Court on September 20, 2024.
The court initially scheduled a joint hearing of their cases for October 10, but later postponed it to October 25, after having to return the cases to the procuratorate for more information.
During the hearing on October 25, both Ms. Zhao and Ms. Zhang testified in their own defense.
Ms. Zhao, a former teacher at Fuchun Elementary School, said that when her son was diagnosed with congenital heart disease when he was seven years old, the doctor predicted that he only had six months to live. In 1996, their entire family began to practice Falun Gong at the recommendation of a coworker and her son soon recovered. She strove to become a better person by following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Ms. Zhao added that there is no law in China that says practicing Falun Gong is a crime and that the General Administration of Press and Publication lifted its ban on Falun Gong publications in 2011. Falun Gong is now welcomed and practiced by people around the globe, and yet practitioners in China are sentenced to prison simply for trying to be good people.
The judge interrupted Ms. Zhao many times as she was speaking.
The judge announced on November 29, 2024, that Ms. Zhao and Ms. Zhang were both sentenced to 2.5 years. They are now in the process of appealing the verdicts.
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