(Minghui.org) It was recently learned that the Zhangwan District Court in Shiyan City, Hubei Province recently sentenced seven local residents for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Wu Xuyong, 43, was sentenced to three and a half years and fined 10,000 yuan.Mr. Wu’s mother, Ms. Zhang Xingju, in her 70s, was sentenced to three years and fined 5,000 yuan.Ms. Chen Xuyun, in her 60s, was sentenced to three years and fined 5,000 yuan.Ms. Chen Xuzhen, in her 60s, was sentenced to one year and fined 2,000 yuan.Ms. Chen Qingyun, 76, Ms. Luo Xiuzhen, 80, and Ms. Hu Yanhua, 42, were each sentenced to two years with three years probation and a 2,000-yuan fine.
It is unclear whether the seven practitioners were tried together or separately, but judge Zhang Lei presided over their trial. Also present were judges Yang Xiaojian and Zheng Jinhua, as well as their assistant Wang Luqi and clerk Wang Cheng.
All seven practitioners were arrested in March 2023, per an order from Song Yang (+86-719-8221143) of the Zhangwan District Domestic Security Office. The Beiqu Police Station was also involved in the arrests. Officers Wu Guangrong and Fang Chaoyang were in charge of submitting the practitioners’ cases to the Zhangwan District Procuratorate. It is unclear when the practitioners were indicted, tried, or sentenced.
Arrests
Except for Ms. Chen Xuyun and Mr. Wu, all other practitioners’ exact arrest dates and details remain unknown at the time of writing.
Ms. Chen Xuyun and her younger sister (possibly Ms. Chen Xuzhen) were arrested on the afternoon of March 2, 2023, while visiting Mr. Wu. The arresting officers from the Zhangwan District Domestic Security Office raided their homes and took them to the Zhangwan District Brainwashing Center (located at the local Niutoushan Forest Park). Some other practitioners were already there but it was unclear whether they were the other sentenced practitioners mentioned above.
The police transferred Ms. Chen Xuyun and Mr. Wu to the Shiyan City Detention Center in late March 2023.
Repeatedly Persecuted in the Past
Three of the seven sentenced practitioners were previously jailed for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Luo and Ms. Zhang were both previously sentenced to four and a half years around 2009. Ms. Zhang’s husband, Mr. Wu Xianjun, was also once jailed for three years for practicing Falun Gong. He was brutally tortured in prison and later became a vegetable. He has never recovered and is now left with no one to care for him with his wife’s latest prison sentencing.
Ms. Chen Xuyun used to work in the laboratory of Yunyang Medical College. She suffered from many diseases, including gallbladder stones (both of which were 3.2 mm in size), insufficient blood supply from the vertebral arteries, cervical spondylosis, migraines, and vertigo. When she felt extremely uncomfortable, she resorted to self-administered ancient bloodletting therapy by cutting herself with a piece of glass and letting out affected blood.
After she took up Falun Gong in May 1996, Ms. Chen soon felt light and in good spirits even even before she fully learned how to do Falun Gong exercises. Before she knew it, her migraine, and vertigo disappeared. She also gradually recovered from her other symptoms. Her office was on the sixth floor and she often ran upstairs instead of taking the elevator, something unthinkable in the past.
Her employer issued a certificate to affirm her good health as she saved them a lot of medical expenses. After the persecution began, she and her husband, Mr. Wu Mingjin, were arrested multiple times. Both of them were sentenced to three years in prison after they were seized from home on July 30, 2008.
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