(Minghui.org) Four Kunming City, Yunnan Province residents were sentenced to prison on July 27, 2020, for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Yang Jingbo, 64, Ms. Wu Cunxian, 65, and Ms. Ni Huixian, 68, were arrested on July 10, 2019, after being reported for putting up stickers with information about Falun Gong in a residential area.

Mr. Li Jiazhou, 42, who happened to be visiting Mr. Yang when the police came to arrest Mr. Yang, was also arrested. After confiscating Mr. Yang’s Falun Gong materials, the police went to Mr. Li’s home and ransacked it as well. His laptop, printer and Falun Gong materials were seized.

The Xishan District Procuratorate charged the four practitioners with “undermining law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the Chinese authorities to imprison Falun Gong practitioners.

The practitioners appeared in Xishan District Court on July 27, 2020, and were sentenced at the end of the trial: Ms. Wu and Ms. Ni were each sentenced to one year and five months, with a 3,000-yuan fine; Mr. Yang was given three years and fined 10,000 yuan.

Mr. Li, who didn’t put up the stickers with the other three practitioners, was sentenced to four years and fined 15,000 yuan. The judge accused him of being a repeat offender upon discovering that he was given a 1.5-year labor camp term in 2002 for practicing Falun Gong.