(Minghui.org) A 70-year-old woman was sentenced to two years for her faith in Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Gong Xiuying, a retired aluminum factory worker in Chongqing City, was arrested on November 12, 2018, for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was denied family visits while held at Huayan Detention Center.
When her family sought updates on her case at the Domestic Security Division after learning that her case had been returned by the procuratorate, the officer who received them was very rude and said, “You can go ahead and hire a lawyer to sue us [if you have objections about the case].”
Ms. Gong’s family learned in August 2019 that she had been secretly tried by Jiulongpo District Court on July 29. She didn’t have any legal representation and acted as her own lawyer.
Ms. Gong was sentenced to two years and fined 2,000 yuan on September 17, 2019. Her family was informed of and attended the sentencing hearing this time around. She appealed the verdict at the end of the trial, but was later rejected.
Ms. Gong was sent to Chongqing Women’s Prison on January 6, 2020. The authorities said they would allow her family to visit her a few weeks later.
Because of not renouncing her faith, Ms. Gong has been repeatedly persecuted in the past two decades.
She was first arrested in 2001. After spending one month at Dadukou Detention center, she was given fifteen months at Chongqing Women’s Forced Labor Camp.
She was arrested again in March 2008 and sentenced to three years in Jiangjin Prison, after thirteen months of incarceration at Huayan Detention Center. She was tortured in the prison.
Chongqing Woman Secretly Tried for Talking to People about Falun Gong