Parents Incarcerated for Advocating for Unjustly Convicted Daughter; Mother Sentenced to 2.5 Years

Ms. Xu Xiuzhen, a resident of Gaomi City in Shandong Province, was sentenced to 2.5 years shortly after her arrest on November 7, 2023 for her practice of Falun Gong according to Minghui and Weiquanwang. Presently, Ms. Xu is detained in the Weifang City Detention Center.

Earlier in 2023, Ms. Xu’s older daughter, Ms. Qin Shaohua,  received a 2.5-year sentence, also for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Qin’s 10-year-old daughter, who had been residing with Ms. Xu and her husband, was compelled by the Gaomi City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, a non-judicial agency overseeing the persecution, to relocate to a different school and live with her father, who had separated from Ms. Qin nearly a decade ago.

The arrest of Ms. Xu was ordered by Gao Jie, the head of the Gaomi City 610 Office and the Gaomi City Domestic Security Office, and the Xiazhuang Town Police Station carried out the arrest. Mr. Qin Songfa, Ms. Xu’s husband, was also arrested a day after Ms. Xu. Their second daughter, Ms. Qin Shaoying, experienced significant psychological distress due to the persecution. On November 10, 2023, Mr. Qin Jin, the couple’s son, was arrested and interrogated at a police station for 24 hours before he was released. The police now monitor his cellphone.

Older Daughter Sentenced

The family’s plight started from the arrest of the older daughter, Ms. Qin Shaohua on May 31, 2022, after she was reported by two property management workers for distributing Falun Gong materials in her neighborhood. The police raided her home and released her on bail that evening. 

Though initially released on bail, the Gaomi City Court scheduled a hearing of Ms. Qin’s case for December 1, 2022. She did not attend it. On February 8, 2023, she was arrested again and taken to the Weifang City Detention Center. The family only learned of her 2.5-year sentence on July 17, 2023, without receiving official updates on her case.

In response, Ms. Qin’s parents sought justice by writing complaint letters against the arresting officers from the Furi Police Station and other individuals involved in their daughter’s persecution. In the next few months, Ms. Xu and Mr. Qin mailed out more than 400 letters to various agencies at the central, provincial, municipal and township government levels.

The Arrest of Mother and Second Daughter

On March 3, 2023, Ms. Xu and her second daughter, Ms. Qin Shaoying, were arrested following reports of them engaging in discussions about Falun Gong at a community fair. Their residence was ransacked, and they were released around noon.

On March 10, both the mother and daughter were summoned to the Xiazhuang Town Police Station, where they were instructed to sign case documents. The police collected their fingerprints and took photographs on the street, presumably with the intention of falsely accusing them of distributing Falun Gong materials at that location. On March 18, the police harassed them again, attempting to collect more information to charge them. The persecution took a toll on Ms. Qin, leading to a mental breakdown, and she was subsequently admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

On June 13, an officer from the Xiazhuan Town Police Station visited Ms. Xu’s home, instructing her to fingerprint a case document while informing her that she was still on bail and under surveillance. It remains unclear whether Ms. Xu complied with this demand.

A more intrusive incident occurred on September 5 at 6:30 a.m., when four police officers returned and Mr. Qin refused to open the door, the police borrowed a ladder from his neighbor, scaled the fence wall and broke in Mr. Qin’s residence. They deceived Ms. Xu into going with them to the Gaomi City Procuratorate. A prosecutor asked Ms. Xu where she got the Falun Gong materials she distributed earlier. Ms. Xu refused to answer. The police sent her home around 11 a.m.

Three officers attempted to deceive Ms. Xu into going to the Gaomi City Court on October 13. She resisted this time. Five days later, accompanied by court staffers, the police informed her of a scheduled hearing for her case on November 6. While it’s not clear whether she attended the hearing, she was arrested on November 7 and sentenced to 2.5 years at an unknown date. Her family suspected that this expedited judgment was a retaliatory measure by the authorities, linked to her persistent efforts to seek justice for her older daughter.

Based on an original report by Minghui.