(Minghui.org) A 60-year-old woman in Xichang City, Sichuan Province, was sentenced on June 12, 2023, to 3.5 years for practicing Falun Gong. This is the second time that Ms. Yu Hongying has been sentenced for her faith in the past three years.
Ms. Yu was arrested outside of the Daxiangkou Post Office on July 15, 2022. After finding out that she had mailed a letter to the local police chiefs on February 28, 2022, urging them not to persecute Falun Gong, the police spent five months tracking her down. They deemed the letter “anti-CCP” propaganda, because “Falun Gong” was mentioned in it.
Ms. Yu developed extremely high blood pressure in January 2023 and was taken to the hospital. When she was discharged, her blood pressure remained very high. She also suffered lacunar cerebral infarction and type II diabetes.
The detention center did not notify the Chengdu Railway Transportation Second Court of her medical conditions as required by law, and she was made to stand trial on June 1, 2023. Her lawyers requested that the hearing be halted when they noticed that she looked very ill, but their request was denied. They defended her innocence, arguing that she was exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief.
The prosecutor charged Ms. Yu with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners in China. The Falun Gong books and informational materials confiscated from her were listed as prosecution evidence, but the prosecutor didn’t mention anything about how the materials were related to the charge or what damage they caused to the public or any individuals. No prosecution witnesses appeared in court to testify about the aforementioned letter.
Ms. Yu’s lawyers argued that, according to Article 138 of the Criminal Procedure Law, “When conducting a search, a search warrant must be shown to the person being searched.” Because the police never showed the search warrant during her arrest or home raid, the items confiscated from her should be inadmissible evidence.
The prosecutor accused Ms. Yu of being a repeat offender since she was sentenced to 1.5 years by the Xichang City Court on December 9, 2020, for practicing Falun Gong. Her lawyers argued that her previous imprisonment should never have happened because she was merely exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief.
Judge Chen Qing of the Chengdu Railway Transportation Second Court and Wang Wei of the Xichang Railway Transport Procuratorate went to the Xichang City Detention Center on June 12, 2023, to deliver the verdict to her. She expressed her intention to appeal the sentence right away.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yu Qi (余琦), presiding judge, Chengdu Railway Transportation Second Court: +86-28-81255636Chen Hui (陈辉), judge: +86-18181917808Pan Hui (潘辉), chief prosecutor, Xichang Railway Transport Procuratorate: +86-834-8623280
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related reports:
Five Sichuan Residents’ Motion to Reconsider Their Prison Sentences Accepted by Intermediate Court
Seven Sichuan Residents Sentenced to Prison, Families in Distress
Six Falun Gong Practitioners and One Spouse Stand Trial
Four Sichuan Residents Indicted for Their Faith, File Appeals to Have Cases Dropped
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