(Minghui.org) Three Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, residents were recently sentenced to prison for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Yu Guichun, 72, was sentenced to eight years. Ms. Li Yongmei was given five years. Ms. Zhang Yujin, 79, a retired professor at Shenyang Ligong University, was sentenced to four and a half years.
The police revealed that they had been following the three women and monitoring their phone calls for six months before arresting them over the course of two days in September 2023.
Ms. Yu called Ms. Li on September 19, 2023 asking for additional SIM cards to browse the Internet. The police intercepted the information of their meeting location and time and arrested them when they met later that day.
Ms. Yu’s home was raided by officers from the Huangcheng Police Station and Ms. Li’s home was ransacked by officers from the Shenhe District Police Department and the Nanta Police Station. None of the officers who raided Ms. Li’s home wore police uniforms. Only the police chief Shi Shoujun showed his police ID. Ms. Li’s laptop, printer, laminator, flash drives, Falun Gong books and informational materials were confiscated.
Police chief Shi and two officers hung Ms. Li up by her wrists, with her feet suspended in the air during the interrogation. Her wrists became severely swollen as a result.
A day later on September 20, Ms. Zhang was arrested outside her apartment building by officers from the Wanlian Police Station.
Ms. Li and Ms. Zhang were held at the Shenyang City First Detention Center. It’s not clear where Ms. Yu was detained.
The three practitioners appeared in the Dadong District Court on February 28, 2024. The judge appointed lawyers to represent them, but Ms. Zhang refused to use her court-appointed lawyer. The other two lawyers entered guilty pleas for Ms. Yu and Ms. Li. All three practitioners testified in their own defense and they maintained that they didn’t violate any laws by practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Yu’s two daughters, Ms. Zhang’s two sons and Ms. Li’s sister attended the hearing. The judge adjourned the session after 90 minutes and announced the verdicts weeks later.
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