(Minghui.org) Four Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province residents were sentenced to prison on January 4, 2021, for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Chen Liping, Ms. Wan Xiaoping, and Ms. Yang Jinfeng were all sentenced to four years and two months, with a 30,000 yuan fine. Ms. Wan Jinlian was given one year and fined 5,000 yuan.
Ms. Chen, 45, Ms. Wan Xiaoping, a 66-year-old retired Aluminum Products Factory worker, and Ms. Yang, a 67-year-old retired employee from Jiangxi Province Foreign Economic Trade Corporation, were all arrested on July 18, 2019.
The police ransacked their homes. Ms. Yang’s calendars with information about Falun Gong and Ms. Wan Xiaoping’s 13,865 yuan in cash and 50,000 yuan bank deposit slip were confiscated. They were held at a local brainwashing center and released on July 26 on bail.
The fourth practitioner, Ms. Wan Jinlian, a 70-year-old retired employee of Nanchang City Food Factory, was arrested on September 6, 2019. Her home was also ransacked and her Falun Gong books confiscated. She was shortly released on bail after she was forced to sign a statement promising not to distribute Falun Gong materials anymore.
The police submitted Ms. Wan Jinlian’s case to the Xihu District Procuratorate on January 15, 2020, which returned it twice, on February 14 and April 13, respectively, due to insufficient evidence before accepting it after the police’s third submission on May 13.
On July 17, 2020, the Xihu District Procuratorate indicted all four practitioners. They were tried by the Xihu District Court on December 21. Ms. Wan Jinlian acted as her own lawyer and defended her innocence. She talked about how practicing Falun Gong has improved her health and improved her character.
Prior to her latest term, Ms. Wan Jinlian had been sentenced to one year after her arrest in April 2011.
