(Minghui.org) Two Shenyang City, Liaoning Province residents were recently sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

After nearly eight months of detention and abuse, Ms. Wang Jinfeng is suffering from high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and a heart condition. Ms. Li Fengzhi, on the other hand, has lost vision in both eyes. Their families are very worried about them.

Ms. Wang Jinfeng

Ms. Li Fengzhi

Ms. Wang, 63, and Ms. Li, 67, were arrested on February 19, 2022. The Yuhong District Court held a virtual joint hearing of their cases on August 12 at the Shenyang City No. 1 Detention Center. The judge barred Ms. Wang’s non-lawyer defender, who is a member of her family, from representing her, and appointed government lawyer Yu Jiao to represent her and enter a guilty plea for her, despite Ms. Wang’s repeated request not to be represented by Yu.

On September 20, the judge announced Ms. Wang’s sentence of four years in prison and Ms. Li’s sentence of three years. Both were fined 5,000 yuan.

The court didn’t inform Ms. Wang’s family of the verdict. They only found out about it when the lawyer they hired for her visited her on September 27. By then, there were only three days left before the ten-day appeal window expired. When the family consulted with the judge, he claimed that he would only accept the appeal written by Ms. Wang herself. Yet the detention center guards didn’t allow her to write it. It’s not clear at the time of writing whether she successfully submitted the appeal.

Prior to Ms. Wang’s latest sentencing, she was given one year of forced labor in 1999 and sentenced to seven years by the Kangping County Court on February 10, 2010. While serving time at the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison, she was tortured for not renouncing Falun Gong and suffered concussion, a severe heart condition and back pain as a result.

Ms. Li was previously sentenced to three years by the Huanggu District Court in 2010. She lost vision in both eyes from the torture in custody and was later released on medical parole. While the condition was cured after she resumed practicing Falun Gong, it relapsed after her latest arrest and sentencing.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Sun Hao (孙浩), president of Yuhong District Court: +86-24-85839996Jiang Nai (姜鼐), judge of Yuhong District Court: +86-24-85839801Piao Yunjing (朴云晶), prosecutor of Yuhong District Procuratorate: +86-24-85837622Zhang Yonghang (张永航), deputy secretary of Shenyang City Political and Legal Affairs Committee: +86-24-22829716

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

Two Liaoning Women Stand Trial for Their Faith in Falun Gong