(Minghui.org) Ms. Su Cuirong, 72, was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 30,000 yuan in the Bincheng District Court in April 2018 for practicing Falun Gong. She was charged with undermining law enforcement, a pretext commonly used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to sentence practitioners. Ms. Su has filed an appeal to have the unlawful verdict overturned.
Ms. Su has not broken any laws. She was sentenced to prison for refusing to write the repentance statement that she would give up Falun Gong. She was given the choice of giving up Falun Gong or being sentenced to prison.
Ms. Su's appeal laid out the violations of legal procedures: Ms. Su should not have been tried at the same time as two other practitioners. No witnesses on her behalf had been allowed to speak, and the original evidence was not presented. Specifically, the audiovisual materials were not played during the trial. The court deprived Ms. Su of her right to cross-examination.
Ms. Su, Ms. Liu Wenfang, and Ms. Wu Baoyu were arrested on October 22, 2017, at home by officers from the Shixi Police Station in the Bincheng District. Their homes were ransacked. The women were officially placed under arrest a month later and tried in the Bincheng District Court on March 21, 2018.
After the Chinese Communist Party started to persecute Falun Gong, Ms. Su saw so many being brainwashed by the Party propaganda and decided to let the public know the truth behind the persecution. Because of that, on March 15, 2007, she was sent to a forced labor camp for three years. In 2008 she was taken to brainwashing sessions arranged by Binzhou City.
Before practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Su smoked, drank, and had a bad temper. She also had many ailments, such as inflammation of the female reproductive system, and was a frequent visitor to the hospital. Her illnesses disappeared one month after she began to practice Falun Gong. She became kind and quit smoking and drinking.
