(Minghui.org) A 57-year-old Pingyuan County, Shandong Province, resident, was sentenced to two years on October 29, 2024, for raising awareness about the persecution of her faith, Falun Gong.
Ms. Min Xiangxian, a farmer, was arrested in June 2024, after being reported for putting up posters about Falun Gong in Yaozhan Town. After the Yaozhan Township Police Station officers handed her to the Pingyuan County Police Department, the latter took her to the Dezhou Detention Center. For the next few months, her family spared no efforts to seek her release, but to no avail.
Ms. Min was sentenced to two years and fined 10,000 yuan by the Pingyuan County Court on October 29, 2024. She has been admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison in Jinan, the capital of Shandong. Other details about her indictment, trial, and sentencing aren’t clear.
Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Min has been detained multiple times for speaking up for her faith.
She went to Beijing in December 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, with her children in tow. Due to the persecution, all of the hotels refused to check them in. She had no way but to head straight to Tiananmen Square on a bus.
Before the bus arrived at Tiananmen Square, the driver ordered Ms. Min and her children to get off. Only then did she realize that the bus had been surrounded by police. After overnight detention at a police station, the family was escorted back to Pingyuan County the next day. The 70 yuan cash she had was confiscated by the police.
Without allowing her to go home, the police detained her at the Pingyuan County Detention Center for a month. She was forced to make craft flowers without pay and only given cornbread for every meal. When she was released, the guards extorted 3,000 yuan from her and forced her to pay 500 yuan as the cost of living. The police also ordered Ms. Min to report to them every day.
Only a few days after her release, Ms. Min was taken back to the detention center on January 20, 2001, three days before the Chinese New Year. She was held there for another three weeks and forced to do the free labor again.
The police broke into Ms. Min’s home in November 2006 and confiscated her Falun Gong books, informational materials, and 200 yuan in cash. Ms. Min was arrested at her relative’s home and taken to the Pingyuan County Police Station. Due to her family’s efforts to rescue her, she was released the next day, after being extorted 3,000 yuan.
As a result of the repeated arrests and harassment, the villagers began to discriminate against Ms. Min and her school-age children. The family lived in fear and under tremendous pressure.