(Minghui.org) A 65-year-old woman in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, has had her pension suspended since the summer of 2021 when she started serving a three-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong. The benefits were not reinstated after she was released in 2024.
Ms. Ning Hong’s latest prison sentence stemmed from her arrest on August 15, 2019, after she was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police initially gave her 15 days of detention. But after the detention center denied her admission due to high blood pressure, the police released her and put her under house arrest. They later forced her landlord to terminate her lease and evict her.
On March 26, 2021, a Pengzhou City Court judge and his clerks descended on Ms. Ning’s home, where he heard her case and sentenced her to three years with a 5,000-yuan fine.
The court deceived Ms. Ning into reporting to them “for a physical exam” on August 23, 2021. She was arrested on arrival and taken straight to the Pi County Detention Center to serve her term.
Because Ms. Ning refused to give up her faith, the detention center guards did not allow her family to visit her or send her clothes. They could only deposit a small amount of money into her commissary account. She was likely released on August 22, 2024.
After she returned home, Ms. Ning learned that her former employer, the Sichuan Province People’s Radio Station, had suspended her pension starting in the summer of 2021, even though she had worked there as a reporter for decades. They still have not reinstated her benefits.
Prior to this, Ms. Ning was arrested on August 27, 2006, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. While she was held at the Pi County Detention Center, the radio station suspended her salary. The Wuhou District Court sentenced her to three years on February 12, 2007, and she was taken to the Yangmahe Prison on June 26 that year.
Former Journalist Sentenced to Three Years for Raising Awareness of the Persecution of Her Faith