(Minghui.org) Four residents of Gaomi City, Shandong Province, were sentenced to prison on March 27, 2024 for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zhou Zhaoxiu was given ten months and taken to a prison (exact name unknown) on the same day. Ms. Li Chunlan was given two years with two years probation. Ms. Xia Xiuxiang and Ms. Yan Suhua were each given one year with two years probation.
The four women stood trial at the Gaomi City Court on December 18, 2023. The presiding judge announced a fine for all four of them at the end of the hearing. Ms. Li was ordered to pay 15,000 yuan and the other three practitioners each 8,000 yuan. The judge also ordered them to return to the courthouse in ten days to learn about their verdicts, but he did not issue a ruling until March 27, 2024. It is unclear why he did not sentence and fine the practitioners in one sitting.
The group sentencing stemmed from a mass arrest of 37 local Falun Gong practitioners on June 24, 2022. The Jiangzhuang Police Station officers broke into Ms. Li’s home that morning and confiscated her laptop and Falun Gong books. The police even ripped her wall decoration bearing Falun Gong messages. Ms. Zhou, Ms. Xia, and Ms. Yan, as well as 33 other practitioners were arrested at different times on the same day.
The 37 practitioners were released on one-year bail shortly afterwards, with some of them later put under house arrest after their bail period ended.
Ms. Li, Ms. Zhou, Ms. Xia, and Ms. Yan were forced to admit guilt in practicing Falun Gong around December 2023. The police then submitted their cases to the Gaomi City Procuratorate, which soon indicted them.