(Minghui.org) A Hailin City, Heilongjiang Province resident was framed and sentenced to six years and three months for her faith in Falun Gong on March 30, 2021.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Yao Shuxia, a Hailin City, Heilongjiang Province resident, suddenly went missing on October 29, 2020. Her Falun Gong books at home were also gone. After asking around, her family confirmed on the next day that she has been arrested after being reported for putting up stickers with information about Falun Gong.

Ms. Yao was denied family visits at the Hailin Lockup. After the police extended her initial 15-day administrative detention by another 15 days, she was put on criminal detention and transferred to the Mudanjiang City Detention Center.

Her family learned on December 4, 2020, that the police had submitted her case to the local procuratorate. The prosecutor indicted her and suggested that she be sentenced to seven years.

Ms. Yao appeared in Hailin City Court on March 30, 2021. The court waited until the day of the hearing to inform her family about it. She wasn’t represented by a lawyer.

Ms. Yao testified during the hearing that after she was arrested, the police took her to a utility pole, forced her to put her hands on it, and then took photos of her. They submitted the photos as prosecution evidence, claiming they were taken while Ms. Yao was putting up the stickers.

Ms. Yao said that, in addition to staging the photos, the police also found several people as witnesses “who had allegedly seen her put up stickers” and took staged photos of them in order to frame her.

When Ms. Yao’s daughter went to the court to inquire about her case on April 8, the presiding judge, Jiang Xinkun, told her that he had sentenced Ms. Yao to six years and three months. She has ten days to appeal the verdict.