68-year-old Woman Sentenced to 2.5 Years for Her Faith, Less Than Two Years After Serving Eight Months

(Minghui.org) Only one and a half years after Ms. Yang Fengying finished serving eight months for practicing Falun Gong, the 68-year-old Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province resident was arrested again and secretly sentenced to another 2.5 years.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Yang was arrested on January 9, 2022, after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. Her home was ransacked. Two officers asked her family to sign her detention notice the next day, but they refused. The Linghai City Procuratorate approved her arrest five days later.

In early September 2022, as Ms. Yang’s family hadn’t heard any update about her case, they called the Linghai City Court, only to be told that she had been sentenced to 2.5 years and fined 4,000 yuan in July. Her family questioned why the court did not inform them of the sentencing, and the person who answered the phone responded, “You can go ahead and file an appeal if you have an objection.”

Ms. Yang’s family went to the Jinzhou City Detention Center the next day to deliver clothes and make a cash deposit for her. The guard on duty told them that they couldn’t find any record of her court hearing. As Ms. Yang’s family weren’t allowed to meet with her in person, it’s not clear whether a hearing ever took place before she was sentenced.

Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Yang has been repeatedly arrested, detained, and tortured. She served five years at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp between 2000 and 2005.

She was arrested again on November 15, 2019, and sentenced to eight months in May 2020. The local social security bureau called her family following her conviction, saying that she wasn’t entitled to receive any retirement benefits while serving time (between November 15, 2019, and July 14, 2020). Her family was ordered to return the 14,091 yuan she had received after her arrest. The authorities also barred her from receiving an annual pension increase from now on.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Zhang Fengwu (张凤武), president of Linghai City Court: [phone]Xue Weiwei (薛伟巍), president of Linghai City Procuratorate: [phone], [phone], [phone]Ma Liang (马量), prosecutor of Linghai City Procuratorate: [phone]Li Gang (李刚), head of Binhai New District Domestic Security Office: [phone], [phone], [phone]

Related report:

After Serving Five Years of Forced Labor, Liaoning Woman Jailed Eight Months for Her Faith