(Minghui.org) Two Yunfu City, Guangdong Province residents were recently sentenced to prison for raising awareness about their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Shen Xuemei, 44, and Ms. Chen Yuanying, 70, were arrested on September 30, 2019 while buying beverages at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, after the police somehow discovered Falun Gong-related materials on them. 

Both practitioners were tried by the Yun’an District Court on November 20, 2020. The judge sentenced Ms. Shen to three years with a 3,000-yuan fine, and Ms. Chen to one year and six months with a 2,000-yuan fine on December 16. Ms. Shen has appealed to the Yunfu City Intermediate Court.

Prior to their latest arrests, Ms. Shen was detained three times and served nearly two years in a labor camp. 

Her husband, Mr. Chen Jianguo, was arrested on October 25, 2007 and secretly sentenced to seven years in Sihui Prison in May 2008. After he was released, the police and the local residential committee staffers kept coming back to harass him. He was forced into displacement and moved from place to place to hide from the police.

Unable to find him, the police harassed Ms. Shen instead. On August 3, 2017, a group of officers harassed Ms. Shen at home. They returned on August 15, demanded to know Mr. Chen’s whereabouts and videotaped their home and Mr. Chen’s parents.

Related reports:

After One Year of Forced Labor and Years of Displacement, Guangdong Woman Arrested and Detained Again for Her Faith

Two Guangdong Women Tried for Spreading Information about Their Faith