(Minghui.org) Two Shan County, Shandong 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. Guo Xiuqin, in her 60s, was arrested on January 16, 2021 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police raided her home and confiscated 40 copies of Falun Gong booklets. She was later sentenced to three years, but other details about her case aren’t clear.
Another practitioner, Ms. Zhang Fenglan, 66, was arrested on August 13, 2021, after being reported by a college student for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was first held at the Gaoweizhuang Village Police Station for 25 days and then transferred to the Juancheng Detention Center. The detention center guards once deprived her of sleep for days on end and also used other torture methods in order to force her to renounce Falun Gong. But she remained firm in her faith.
Ms. Zhang was tried through a virtual hearing in late March 2022 and sentenced to three years and eight months. Her family wasn’t informed of the court session or given a copy of her verdict. Ms. Zhang appealed the verdict herself, but her family hasn’t received any update from the court two months later.
Starting in early 2020, the authorities in Shan County began to harass local practitioners and ordered them to renounce Falun Gong. When the practitioners refused to comply, the authorities ordered their children to sign the renouncing statements on their behalf.
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