(Minghui.org) Ms. Sui Guilan of Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on July 20, 2022, sentenced to one year, and fined 10,000 yuan on May 12, 2023.
This is not the first time that Ms. Sui, around 56, has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999.
An elementary school teacher with 30 years of experience, Ms. Sui has been arrested multiple times since she took up Falun Gong in 2005. She was given one year of forced labor in August 2012 and was detained for five days in 2015 after filing a criminal complaint against former CCP leader Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution.
Her next arrest was on April 6, 2016, followed by five days of detention. She was held in custody for another 10 days after she was arrested on May 20, 2016. She was sentenced to three years in prison following her arrest on January 15, 2018.
Her latest arrest came only a year and a half after she was last released from prison. Days before her arrest, on July 4, 2022, Jixi City Police Department had ordered the Pinggang Police Station in the Lishu District to go after Ms. Sui. The police called one of her relatives that day and told him to tell her to report to the police station. She refused to comply, and the police arrested her on the morning of July 20, 2022, and took her to Jixi City Detention Center.
The police cited as evidence against her an article published on Minghui.org about her persecution and 52 Falun Gong books confiscated from her home. The Mishan City Procuratorate indicted her and forwarded her case to the Mishan City Court on March 6, 2023. The court had intended to appoint a lawyer to enter a guilty plea for her, but she rejected the offer and hired a lawyer to defend her innocence.
The court held a hearing on April 11, 2023, but had to halt the session midway through after Ms. Sui had a medical episode. The court then scheduled a virtual hearing for April 21. Both she and her lawyer rejected the virtual format and the court agreed to still hold an in-person session.
During her second hearing, the lawyer presented two documents: Announcement 50 of the General Administration of Press and Publication on March 1, 2011, and Ministry of Public Security [2005]39 Notice. The first document repealed the ban on the publication of Falun Gong books, and the second document listed 14 cults, which did not include Falun Gong.
The lawyer argued that the documents indicated that Falun Gong was not a cult and that it was legal to own Falun Gong books. As such, there was no legal basis to charge his client with “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the CCP to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Sui testified in her own defense. She said that Falun Gong enabled her to understand the meaning of life and changed her outlook on life. She became a more caring teacher who treated her students as if they were her own children. Some of her students loved her so much that they even called her “Mom.” However, she was repeatedly targeted simply for her faith. She also said she was arrested ahead of the CCP’s 20th National Congress (October 16-22, 2022) because the authorities feared that practitioners like her might go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.
The judge asked what her 52 Falun Gong books were used for. She refused to answer as she didn’t have to explain how she put to use her lawful possessions. Yet the judge asked her why she reacted so negatively.
Her lawyer responded that the police had deceived her when making the arrest. They stopped her while she was out in public and claimed that they just needed to have a talk with her. In fact, they took her straight to the detention center.
Ms. Sui also refused to answer the prosecutor’s questions. The prosecutor then recommended a one-year sentence. The lawyer asked the prosecutor to drop the indictment, but to no avail.
On May 12, 2023, the court announced that Ms. Sui was sentenced to one year in prison. She is set to be released on July 20, 2023.
Related Reports:
Three Heilongjiang Residents Sentenced for Distributing Information About Their Faith
Seven Heilongjiang Falun Gong Practitioners Imprisoned and Tortured for Their Faith
Heilongjiang Woman Recalls Two Years of Abuse in Detention for Her Faith in Falun Gong
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