81-Year-Old Woman Sentenced to One Year for Her Faith in Retrial

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to mark the 24th anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China by the Chinese Communist Party at the National Mall in Washington on July 20, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

Liu Guibi, 81, is currently imprisoned in Chongqing Women’s Prison for practicing Falun Gong. The local police arrested her in February while she was speaking out about the regime’s persecution campaign against Falun Gong to local residents in Chongqing.

Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the regime since July 1999 when then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin initiated the persecution campaign.

The arresting officers from the Jingguan Town Police Station also raided her home and confiscated a few Falun Gong books. They released her on bail around midnight that day.

The Jiangbei District Court conducted the hearing on July 4. The trial was held in secret and her husband was not allowed to enter, and the five people presiding over the hearing left before Ms. Liu finished her defense statement. She thought the court was in recess but no one returned. Then the court-appointed driver who brought her to the court came and said that the hearing ended. He drove her home.

The court later delivered a guilty verdict to Ms. Liu’s home. She was sentenced to six months in prison. Not long after, the court notified her that the trial was declared a mistrial and they planned to schedule a new trial. The six-month sentence was thus nullified, according to a report by Minghui.org, a website dedicated to reporting on the Falun Gong community worldwide.

On Aug. 25, the court summoned Ms. Liu for another hearing. With no opportunity for a defense, the trial concluded in a mere 5 minutes after the verdict was delivered. On this occasion, she received a one-year prison sentence and was fined 3,000 yuan ($420).

On Aug. 28, Ms. Liu filed an appeal with the intermediate court.

On Aug. 29, her husband, who became bedridden to due various pains as a result of enduring years of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), passed away.

On Nov. 7, the intermediate court stayed the initial judgment. Ms. Liu was forcibly taken to Chongqing Women’s Prison on Dec. 5 after she returned home from the local farmers’ market.

This is not the first time that Ms. Liu has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong.

Beginning in spring of 2000, Ms. Liu was repeatedly arrested and held in various local facilities over the next two years, including the Yaowangguan Brainwashing Center, Tankou Brainwashing Center, Shuitu Town Brainwashing Center, Shuitu Town Nursing Home, Beibei lockup (where she was kept for seven days), and Beibei Detention Center (where she was kept for one month). During one of her detentions, Ms. Liu was also brought to the Shuitu Town Police Station for interrogation.

Brainwashing centers are illicit, clandestine prisons established by the CCP. Falun Gong adherents who steadfastly maintain their practice are covertly confined in these facilities, where they are brainwashed and persecuted, and subjected to mental and physical torture.

According to an investigative report released by Minghui.org in 2014, over the course of 15 years between 1999 and 2014, the CCP has set up 449 brainwashing centers across the country, involving 173 cities and 329 districts and counties.

The CCP’s Cruel Nature

It is within her legal rights to practice Falun Gong, and to print, distribute, and possess Falun Gong books and materials. Despite this, Ms. Liu has been subjected to relentless persecution by the regime.

A well-known human rights lawyer in mainland China previously expressed to the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that the CCP operates without ethical considerations. “If you are a Falun Gong practitioner, it doesn’t matter your age or even if your health is not suitable for detention; they will still arrest you and imprison you,” he remarked.

The plight of Ms. Liu is not a unique occurrence; the CCP does not show leniency to any elderly adherents of Falun Gong.

The following are just a few cases documented by minghui.org.

Liu Yongcun, an 89-year-old adherent of Falun Gong in Shulan City, Jilin Province, was arrested for spreading the materials regarding Falun Gong and forced to sign a statement renouncing his practice in the winter of 2020. The trauma led to a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving him bedridden. Despite this, the police raided his home and extorted money from him in May 2021. Mr. Liu tragically passed away on September 10, 2021.

Wang Xuebin, an 84-year-old practitioner of Falun Gong in Yingzhou District, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, had his home unlawfully searched, recorded, and photographed by the police on the afternoon of March 23, 2021, continuing until after 7 p.m. At around 9 p.m. the same night, the police returned to his residence, knocking on the door and blaring police car sirens, but he did not open the door. It was only after 10 p.m. that the police departed. Following this, the elderly man was forced into homelessness.

Li Dengchen, an 82-year-old resident of Shenxian County, Hebei Province, and a retired teacher, was forcibly taken from his home by the police on Oct. 22, 2018. Items worth 150,000 yuan ($21,150) were seized during the raid. He endured repeated harassment and was forced into homelessness. Around the New Year of 2021, he was once again abducted, sentenced to 10 years, and imprisoned in Baoding Prison.

Minghui.org and Li Jiesi contributed to this report.