(Minghui.org) The Minghui.org website recently confirmed that a 57-year-old Yi’nan County, Shandong Province resident was admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison in Jinan City to serve a five-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Wang Hongmei was arrested on October 24, 2023, after a plainclothes officer saw her distributing Falun Gong informational materials. That night, over 20 police officers raided her primary residence as well as another home she owned. A large number of Falun Gong books and informational materials were confiscated.

The police took Ms. Wang to the Linyi City Lockup and told her son that she would be released after 15 days of administrative detention. However, she was not released on November 9, 2023, as promised. Instead, she was placed in criminal detention and transferred to the Linyi City Detention Center. Linyi oversees Yi’nan County.

Ms. Wang’s family recently confirmed that she was tried by the Yi’nan County Court around April 1, 2024, and transferred to the prison in late July to serve a five-year term.

Past Persecution

This is not the first time that Ms. Wang has been targeted for her faith. She was previously given three years of forced labor and brutally tortured.

Ms. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong soon after the persecution began in July 1999. She was arrested and fired from her job at the Yi’nan County Fertilizer Factory. As a widow, she struggled to raise her young son by herself. Her brother provided some financial support to help her make ends meet. After her son grew older, she did odd jobs here and there.

During a group arrest in December 2008, Ms. Wang’s computer and multiple house appliances were seized by the police. She was held at the Linyi City Brainwashing Center for an unknown amount of time before being given three years of forced labor. The labor camp guards subjected her to various forms of torture, including electric shocks and sleep deprivation. Her son, then a teenager, was discriminated against and bullied at school.

After Ms. Wang was released, she moved back to her hometown in Zhuanbu Town (which is under the administration of Yi’nan County). A relative helped her find a temporary job.

Related Report:

Shandong Woman Faces Prosecution for Practicing Falun Gong