(Minghui.org) Ms. Yang Xingrong, 78, from Yantai City, Shandong Province, was recently sentenced to 15 months for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Yang was arrested at home on May 9, 2024, by officers of the Zhifu District Domestic Security Division and the Nanshan Road Police Station. More than ten other practitioners in Yantai were also arrested that day.

Ms. Yang was held at the Yantai City Detention Center and issued a formal arrest warrant in early August 2024. She appeared in the Zhifu District Court on December 25, 2024. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her and six of her family members attended the hearing. The judge later convicted her at an unknown date.

Minghui.org has also confirmed that another practitioner who was arrested on the same day, Ms. Liu Wenping, 67, was sentenced to one year around early November 2024.

Ms. Yang took up Falun Gong in April 1996 and made a full recovery from her slipped disc. She no longer suffered from the excruciating pain that often kept her awake at night. When the police came to arrest her on March 20, 2012, she refused to open the door. Her neighbor came to talk to the police, and told them that she is a very kind person. The police left without arresting her.