(Minghui.org) An Anshan City, Liaoning Province resident appealed her prison sentence for practicing Falun Gong in the Anshan City Intermediate Court in early September 2019.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Xu Hui, in her 40s, was arrested on November 16, 2018 for distributing calendars with information about Falun Gong. She was held at the Anshan City Women's Detention Center. Her arrest was approved on December 19, 2018.
The Lishan District Procuratorate twice returned Ms. Xu's case to the police, who fabricated more evidence against her, including making the false allegation of having confiscated 69 copies of Falun Gong-related materials from her home and adding two witness accounts that read exactly the same, with no differences.
Ms. Xu appeared in the Lishan District Court on July 8, 2019. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her and Ms. Xu also testified in her own defense. They both argued that no law in China has ever criminalized Falun Gong and that Ms. Xu should never have been prosecuted for exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression by practicing Falun Gong and telling people about the practice.
The judge sentenced Ms. Xu to 1.5 years in prison on August 22, 2019. The intermediate court received her appeal on September 11, 2019.
Ms. Xu is the youngest of six sisters and had been the sole caregiver for her 93-year- old father for the past 13 years. One year her father was hospitalized eight times, and she stayed in the hospital every night to take care of him. She also helped other patients in the same room when their family members weren't around.
Ms. Xu's father and sisters are calling for her acquittal.
Lawyer Refutes Invalid Prosecution Evidence against His Falun Gong Practitioner Client