Mr. Yu Zhou's Wife Ms. Xu Na Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Yu Zhou was tortured to death on Chinese New Year's Eve, February 6th, 2008. His wife, Ms. Xu Na is still under severe persecution. At 9:00 a.m. on November 25th, 2008, the Chongwen District Court in Beijing sentenced Ms. Xu Na to three years in prison. The whole process took only a few minutes because the results had already been decided, and they were only going through the motions in court. Ms. Xu requested to appeal to a higher court.

Ms. Xu Na's lawyer Cheng Hai did plead innocent for her in the July 2008 session. The judge, Ma Xiaoyu, refused to decide based on the lawyer's factual legal arguments. Cheng Hai was not present for this court session. He said to the media that the sentencing is unfair and he would help Ms. Xu Na appeal to the higher court. He said, "Falun Gong has no illegal definition in China." He believed that based on the efforts of those in the legal field, someday the Chinese government will have to admit the legal existence of Falun Gong.

After Mr. Yu Zhou was tortured to death during the 2008 Olympics season, the Haidian District 610 Office¹, the local police, and community administrators often harassed Ms. Xu Na's parents, threatened them, and forbade them from speaking with foreign journalists. They notified Mr. Yu Zhou's family several days ago that they would process Mr. Yu's body, and they ordered Ms. Xu Na to write a letter granting permission to let Mr. Yu's family represent her in dealing with Mr. Yu's body.

Ms. Xu Na was born in Changchun City, Jilin Province. All of her family members are artists. Her father is a painter in the Chinese Artists Association and her mother teaches at the Jilin Province Art Academy. Ms. Xu Na won an award in the 1998 Chinese Young Artists Oil Painting Exhibit. She is very well-known in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Her husband was a very talented artist and musician. He performed with the popular band "Xiaojuan and the Valley Folks." The couple lived a very happy life following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

In 2001, because she opened their apartment to fellow practitioners coming to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, Ms. Xu Na was sentenced to five years in prison. She returned home in 2006. At around 10:00 p.m. on January 26th, 2008, on the way home after Mr. Yu Zhou's performance, they were stopped by police conducting an "Olympics check." The police found out that they were Falun Gong practitioners, then arrested them and detained the couple in the Tongzhou District Detention Centre.

At 9:00 a.m. on January 27th, 2008, four officers ransacked Ms. Xu Na's parent's home in Haidian District then ransacked her younger sister's home. Mr. Yu Zhou was tortured to death on February 6th, 2008, at age 42. The detention centre did not allow Ms. Xu Na to attend his funeral. They transferred her to the Beijing City Detention Centre, which is the notorious "7th Branch" of the Beijing City Police Department, where "important prisoners" are detained.

Ma Xiaoyu, Chongwen District Procuratorate Judge in charge of Ms. Xu Na' case: 86-10-87895118
Han Aijing (female), Chongwen District Procuratorate Prosecutor: 86-10-67079931

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/11/28/190515.html