(Minghui.org) Ms. Li Xiuying, a Falun Gong practitioner from Jincheng City, was illegally sentenced to 18 months in prison for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese dictator who instigated the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. Her appeal was denied, and she was taken to the Shanxi Women's Prison on May 25, 2016.

Officers from the Jincheng Police Department and the Lanhua Road Police Station went to Ms. Li's home on September 17, 2015 after she filed the complaint. They ransacked her home and confiscated her computer, printer, Falun Gong books, and many personal items.

Ms. Li was arrested when she went to the Lanhua Road Police Station to claim her belongings on October 13, 2015. She was taken to the Jincheng City Detention Center.

Ms. Li was forced to do intense labor during the seven-month period that she was held in Jincheng Detention Center. Her family was able to visit her before she was taken to prison. They found that she had lost weight, her health had deteriorated and she appeared to be depressed.

Background

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other members of the Politburo Standing Committee and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.

The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners over the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.

Under his personal direction, the Communist regime established an extralegal security organization, the 610 Office, on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.

Chinese law allows its citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.