(Minghui.org) A Shenyang City, Liaoning Province resident was recently sentenced to four years for upholding her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual tradition that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Ren Wenman, 48, a former newspaper editor, was arrested on May 24, 2017 while visiting her sister in Beijing. Her sister wasn't informed of her whereabouts until June 2017 when she learned Ms. Ren had been sent to Heping District Detention Center in Shenyang City.
It was reported that the police targeted Ms. Ren after she signed a petition demanding the Chinese government to publicly release information about the persecution of Falun Gong.
Ms. Ren appeared twice in Heping District Court in 2018. Her two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for her.
The judge sentenced her to four years in prison with a 20,000-yuan fine on June 3, 2019, but didn’t inform her lawyers or family of the verdict until two months later.
According to Ms. Ren's sister who visited her at the detention center with her two lawyers on August 2, 2019, Ms. Ren had severe swelling in her lower back and was in tremendous pain.
She is now in the process to prepare to appeal the sentence for her.
Ms. Ren was the editor of the People's Public Security Newspaper. She was fired from her post and forced to divorce her husband for refusing to renounce her faith.
Both of Ms. Ren’s parents are in their 80s, and her sister hasn't told them of her imprisonment, fearing it might bring too much distress to the elderly couple.
