(Minghui.org) Three residents of Huludao City, Liaoning Province were each sentenced to five years in prison for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Hu Shaowei, Ms. Liu Ying, and Ms. Zhang Dongqing were arrested on March 24, 2019 after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong in Chaoyang County, which is about 90 miles from Huludao.
Officers from Domestic Security Division in Chaoyang County ransacked their homes on the next day.
Ms. Liu's husband and son were also taken into custody, but they were released after the police confirmed they weren't the driver who took the three practitioners to Chaoyang County.
The police refused to return Ms. Liu's car, which had earlier been confiscated.
The police submitted the practitioners' cases to the Chaoyang County Procuratorate on April 19, 2019. The prosecutor approved their arrests five days later.
The three practitioners appeared in Chaoyang County Court on August 21, 2019 and were each sentenced to five years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan on September 16.
The practitioners remain incarcerated at Chaoyang City Detention Center at the time of writing. They have appealed the verdicts to Chaoyang City Intermediate Court.
Mr. Hu and Ms. Liu also filed complaints against the police and prosecutors for persecuting them.
Three Families Falling Apart after Years of Persecution for Practicing Falun Gong