(Minghui.org) Ms. Xia Junhua, a Falun Gong practitioner from Ma'anshan City, was recently sentenced to two years in prison after an illegal trial. She is currently locked up in a detention center and has filed an appeal. Prior to this sentence, Ms. Xia was imprisoned for three years following her arrest in 2007.

Nine officers from Yushan Domestic Security broke into Ms. Xia's home on June 26, 2015 and arrested her. The police confiscated her Falun Gong literature, cash and other personal belongings after ransacking her home. She was later released on bail pending trial and was constantly monitored.

Her trial took place on October 22, 2015, and the court did not issue a verdict. She was told that there would be another trial. A month later on November 18, without any notice or a second trial, she was given a two-year sentence.

Ms. Xia used to be a chemistry teacher. Before she became a Falun Gong practitioner, she suffered from rheumatism and had gallstones. She was unable to take medicine for her ailments because of her allergies. She read Zhuan Falun in 1995 and has been a practitioner ever since; the practice soon rid her of all her ailments.

After the persecution started, the local officials frequently harassed her and her family. The authorities put her in a brainwashing center many times, and her family was broken up as a result of the immense pressure in the persecution.

The police arrested her in January 2002 and detained her for ten days for possession of Falun Gong literature.

In July 2007, the police took her to a brainwashing center in an attempt to make her give up the practice. Two policemen monitored her around the clock and tortured her. While she was detained, the police ransacked her home and confiscated her property.

In August Ms. Xia went to Shandong Province to see her mother, who was critically ill. The Ma'anshan police went to Shandong intending to arrest her. Though the police left without her after an objection from the Shandong police, they still called her everyday to terrorize her.

Immediately after Ms. Xia's mother passed away, the Ma'anshan police took her back from Shandong overnight and put her in a detention center on September 9. Two weeks later she was officially arrested and transferred to the Ma'anshan First Detention Center.

Her trial was held on July 28, 2008, almost a year after her arrest, and she had been repeatedly detained since her arrest. She was convicted based on flawed trial procedures and forged evidence, and sentenced to three years.

In September she was transferred to Suzhou Women's Prison. There, she was forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong and to write “repentant statements,” promising to stop the practice. Because of the torture, her health deteriorated and her life was once in danger. She received an unknown injection and as a result, lost hearing in her left ear.

Ms. Xia and her family have been living in terror and misery for the past 16 years of persecution. Her children still panic whenever someone is at the door, and she is on the verge of destitution as she lost all her wages, chances of promotion and company subsidies during her imprisonment.