(Minghui.org) An 81-year-old woman in Beijing was recently sentenced to three years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She has appealed the verdict.
Police officers descended upon Ms. Hu Xingxi’s home on April 23, 2020. Pretending to be interested in their rental property, they deceived her son into opening the door. Ms. Hu demanded to see the officers’ IDs, but they refused to show them.
Six of the officers held Ms. Hu and her son while the others ransacked their shared home. Ms. Hu’s Falun Gong books, three laptops, one printer, and five cell phones were confiscated.
Both Ms. Hu and her son Mr. Liu Xiaojiang were taken to the police station for interrogation. After a physical exam that afternoon, Ms. Hu was taken to the Fengtai District Detention Center, but the guards denied her admission based on her health. She was then taken back to the police station and held there overnight. Her son was released that evening. She was released on bail the next day.
A year later on March 22, 2021, the Fengtai District Procuratorate summoned Ms. Hu, but she refused to go. The police took both her and her son to the procuratorate on April 8. When she refused to sign the case document, the prosecutor was so angry that she shouted at her. She threatened to arrest Ms. Hu if she didn’t show up for two more summons on April 9 and 12. Ms. Hu didn’t comply. She also didn’t respond to the Fengtai District Court when she was summoned on May 12, 2021.
On November 8, 2021, a court staff member delivered Ms. Hu’s indictment to her and indicated that the judge was planning to hear her case at her home at 3 p.m. the next day. Due to the local COVID-19 outbreak, the hearing was canceled and postponed until February 8, 2023. The judge, Hu Chunsheng, delivered Ms. Hu’s verdict to her home on March 30. She was sentenced to three years and fined 3,000 yuan.
Zhang Li (张莉), prosecutor, Fengtai District Procuratorate: +86-10-63892000Hu Chunsheng (胡春生), judge, Fengtai District Court: +86-10-57492499, +86-10-67655680Liu Ruizhen (刘瑞珍), judge’s assistant: +86-15210505116
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)