Ms. Fang Xiuzhen is Sentenced to Ten Years in Jail

On January 21st, 2010, Lixia District Court in Jinan City tried Ms. Fang Xiuzhen, a Falun Gong practitioner. An attorney from Jinan pleaded not guilty on her behalf.

Ms. Fang, 48 years old, used to work at a government-owned car repair factory but was laid off. Because she talked to people about Falun Gong, she was once sentenced to two years of forced labour and was held in the No. 1 Women's Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province from 2001 to 2003.

During the trial, the attorney from Jinan defended her based on facts. Word by word and sentence by sentence he refuted the statute she had supposedly violated: "utilising evil religious organisations to undermine the implementation of the law." Then the attorney asked the judge, "Why do so many countries abroad allow people to practise Falun Gong?" Ms. Fang Xiuzhen refused to answer the judge's question. At last, Ms. Fang re-stated that she was innocence and would firmly maintain her belief.

Before the proceedings began, the court arranged for many police officers to be present around the court gate and prohibited people from entering. They would not even allow Ms. Fang's husband, who is not a practitioner, or her mother to sit in the courtroom. Before the day of the trial, they ordered the Law Management Office of the Bureau of Justice to call her attorney's law firm and threaten the attorney, placing great pressure on him.

The court and the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) of Jinan City worked together to trump up charges against Ms. Fang, saying she violated the law by using her own money to prepare Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution and explained the facts of Falun Gong to people. On January 29th, the court notified her family that they had sentenced her to 10 years of imprisonment.

Lixia District Court:
Zhu Qingzhen, person in charge of Ms. Fang's case: 86-531-86989022 (Office)

Lixia Police Department:
Zhang Fuxin, deputy director: 86-531-850840707
Fang, chief of the 610 Office: 86-15053181906(Mobile)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/2/2/217415.html