(Minghui.org) The Jiamusi City Intermediate Court in Heilongjiang Province ruled on April 7, 2025 to uphold the four-year prison sentence of a 51-year-old local woman because she practices Falun Gong. She was admitted to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison in late May 2025.
Ms. Huang Shaobo’s family hired a lawyer to file a motion to reconsider her case but the prison denied his request to meet with her. Her family was also not allowed to visit her because she refuses to renounce her faith.
Ms. Huang was arrested on September 15, 2023 and sentenced to four years and fined 20,000 yuan on November 7, 2024. Her non-lawyer family defender Zhen (alias) who represented her during the trial continued to defend her during her appeals case.
Zhen called appeals judge Jiang Liang multiple times and visited him in person twice, requesting an open hearing. Jiang eventually agreed to hold an open hearing but turned a blind eye to the trial judge’s legal violations as recounted by Zhen.
Jiang repeatedly denied Zhen’s requests to review the case file or to meet with Ms. Huang. He also refused to accept the legal documents Zhen submitted, including “Request to Re-evaluate Prosecution Evidence,” “Request to Call Witnesses to Court,” “Request to Remove Illegally Gathered Prosecution Evidence,” and “Criminal Complaints [it is unclear against whom].”
Jiang held an appeals hearing on March 21, 2025. Zhen pointed out that Ms. Huang was wrongly convicted because the allegation against her, “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” was a common pretext used by the communist regime to frame Falun Gong practitioners. No law in China criminalizes Falun Gong or labels it a cult. Additionally, Ms. Huang’s practice of her spiritual belief caused no harm to anyone or society, much less undermine law enforcement.
Zhen added that the police submitted additional “evidence” four times during the trial, with later-added evidence contradicting earlier evidence. He also testified against the trial judge for violating legal procedures. The trial judge refused to accept the legal documents he submitted in person. After he mailed the documents, the trial judge never responded to him. He was also not allowed to photocopy the case file. The trial judge arranged people to monitor his meeting with Ms. Huang and stop him from giving her legal advice during the visit. His request to have the prosecutor and the trial judge be recused from the case was rejected. The trial judge also only allowed very few people to attend the court hearings and failed to verify the prosecution evidence in court.
Judge Jiang did not say anything upon hearing the trial judge’s violation of legal procedures. He ordered Ms. Huang to sign court proceedings and she refused as she should not have been sentenced for exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief.
Jiang ruled against Ms. Huang on April 7, 2025 and she was admitted to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison late May 2025. Her family called the prison many times but no one picked up the phone. They later tried again and someone in the prison affairs section finally talked to them. They requested to visit Ms. Huang and were told to have their lawyer call the prison.
The lawyer called the prison on June 9, 2025 and was told that no visits were allowed because Ms. Huang refused to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Huang’s family are very concerned about her safety in the prison. While working with the lawyer on her case, the closely followed the case of another practitioner, Mr. Ren Changbin, who was arrested the day before Ms. Huang in the same police sweep. Mr. Ren was sentenced to three years and he died on September 28, 2024, only five days after he was admitted to the Shuangyashan Prison. Ms. Huang’s family worried whether the same thing would happen to their loved one.
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Police Director Arrests Practitioners and Their Families, Threatens to Eradicate Falun Gong
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