(Minghui.org) A 50-year-old Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province resident was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison on October 11, 2024 for her faith in Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She has appealed the verdict.
Ms. Nie Jing was arrested at home at around 6 p.m. on April 24, 2024, by officers from the Linghe District Domestic Security Division and the Zijing Police Station. The Linghai City Procuratorate approved her arrest on April 30. The Linghai City Court initially assigned judge Xu Bing to handle Ms. Nie’s case, but later handed it to judge Yang Yong, without notifying her lawyer.
During Ms. Nie’s court hearing on October 9, 2024, her lawyer entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. He argued that the prosecutor failed to present evidence to show how Ms. Nie’s practicing Falun Gong had caused any harm to any individual or society at large. No witnesses appeared in court for cross-examination either.
Judge Yang demanded that Ms. Nie could only answer “Yes” or “No” to his questions. When Ms. Nie recounted how her stomach and kidney conditions disappeared one month after she took up Falun Gong in 1997, Yang interrupted her and said, “Are you a Chinese? Can’t you understand Chinese [i.e., the “yes-or-no” requirement]?”
Yang adjourned the hearing after one hour. He sentenced Ms. Nie to 4.5 years a day later, citing the prosecution evidence that she made gourd pendants with information about Falun Gong at another practitioner’s home a year ago and that she shouted “Falun Dafa is good” when she was taken against her will to a hospital for a physical examination.
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Nie has been targeted for her faith. Shortly after the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, she was given three years at the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. She was tied up and shocked with electric batons on her neck, chest, back and all the way to her feet. Her skin was burnt and she had excruciatingly painful blisters all over her body.
Ms. Nie was arrested again on September 24, 2019 and sentenced to 2.5 years with a 20,000-yuan fine on December 29, 2019.
Verdict Against Liaoning Woman for Her Faith Upheld
After Three Years of Forced Labor, Liaoning Woman Sentenced to 2.5 Years for Her Belief