(Minghui.org) Two Jilin City, Jilin Province residents were sentenced to three years in mid-June 2020 for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Sun Yuying, 66, and Ms. Li Shuping, in her 60s, were arrested on May 16, 2019, for passing out information about Falun Gong. Ms. Sun developed a heart condition in July and was treated in the hospital. She was later released on bail after her family paid a 2,000-yuan bond to the police. She was required to report to the police every week. Ms. Li remains in custody in the Jilin City Detention Center.
On December 31, 2019, the police took Ms. Sun to the Chuanying District Court. Judge Li Zhongcheng ordered her to sign three prepared statements to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Sun said she did nothing wrong and wrote “Falun Dafa is good; Falun Dafa is a righteous school of practice” instead of signing the police's statements. In retaliation, the judge called her family to threaten them and forced them to pay 20,000 yuan.
Two months later, judge Li asked Ms. Sun again to go to the court to sign the statements. He told Ms. Li that he had decided to sentence her to three years, but if she signed one statement, he would reduce her term by one year. If she signed two statements, he would give her two fewer years. And if she signed all three statements, she would be acquitted. But if she didn’t sign any of them, he would increase her term to five or seven years with a 50,000 yuan fine. Ms. Sun refused to comply.
Judge Li ordered the trial of both women in mid-June. Ms. Sun attended it in person, while Ms. Li stayed in Jilin City Detention Center and was tried through teleconference. Both practitioners pleaded not guilty and testified in their own defense. The judge announced their three-year sentences at the end of the trial.
Related report:
Judge Threatens to Increase Prison Sentence for Jilin Woman Who Refuses to Renounce Falun Gong
