(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Xiyu was sentenced to 4 years in prison without parole and fined 20,000 yuan for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
This is not the first time that the Pingdu City resident has been targeted for her faith. She was sentenced to five years in 2001 and three and a half years in 2012 for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. Between her two imprisonments, she spent two years in a forced labor camp, from 2007 to 2009.
Ms. Wang's two daughters, the younger one only 16 when she was first arrested, spent half of the past 17 years without their mother's presence. They were often shunned for being the children of a Falun Gong practitioner. Now both married, they found themselves facing their mother's arrest again, on November 24, 2017.
Judge Lei Hongchun of Pingdu City Court held two hearings, both at Pudong Detention Center, on March 30 and May 18.
He sentenced Ms. Wang to prison. Her lawyer said, “I've never seen a Falun Gong practitioner given such a huge fine. I can't believe there is no parole.”
When Ms. Wang's daughters asked on what legal basis their mother was convicted, judge Lei said he handed out the sentence based on the law. He couldn't specify which law Ms. Wang allegedly broke, though.
Ms. Wang submitted her appeal on June 29. Her lawyer visited her on July 3 and learned that she had been forced to take pills to lower her high blood pressure.
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Twice Imprisoned, Woman on Trial Again for Her Faith Calls for End of Persecution
Twice Imprisoned, Shandong Woman Again Faces Trial for Her Faith
