Ms. Shi Xiangdong, from the Shijiazhuang City Religious Affairs Bureau, and Her Husband, Mr. Liu Xin, Imprisoned for Practising Falun Gong

On April 29th, 2007, Ms. Shi Xiangdong, a 37-year-old civil servant from the Shijiazhuang Religious Affairs Bureau, attended a work meeting at the No. 1 Guest House that was hosted by Wu Xianguo, Party Secretary of the Shijiazhuang Party Committee. After the meeting, Shi Xiangdong kindly reminded Wu Xianguo that the things he said about Falun Gong at the meeting were wrong and would damage his reputation. As soon as Wu discovered that Ms. Shi was a Falun Gong practitioner, a few plainclothes officers emerged, and pushed Shi Xiangdong to the ground, then forcibly took her to a detention centre. The police also later arrested her husband, Mr. Liu Xin, when he went to visit her. Their home was also ransacked.

A case was filed in the Qiaoxi District Court of Shijiazhuang City, and no one knew when the trial took place. On November 9th, the family was notified of the judgement and learned that Ms. Shi Xiangdong had been sentenced to three years of imprisonment, and her husband was sentenced to five years in prison. Both have appealed the verdicts. Mr. Liu has been on a hunger strike since the day he received notification of the sentence.

Currently, the family consists of only Mr. Liu Xin's mother, who is in her seventies with poor health, and the couple's six-year-old daughter. Mr. Liu's mother is very worried about her son's health condition. She is often in tears all day long, while struggling to take care of her young granddaughter.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/11/17/166738.html