(Minghui.org) Five Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to prison by a court in Chongqing in August 2018 for refusing to renounce their beliefs.
The sentencing came nearly one year after the practitioners were arrested for talking or mailing letters to people about the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese communist regime.
Ms. Lai Henghui was sentenced to 4.5 years, Ms. Zeng Deling was sentenced to 3.5 years, Mr. Qiu Yonglungot and Ms. Huang Ying both received 2 years, and the term for Ms. Zhong Chuanhui remains to be investigated.
All of them were directly taken to prison after the judge announced the verdict.
Ms. Huang Ying had been released on bail for having an abnormally fast heart rate after her arrest. She was out of town when she received the hearing notice. She went alone to the hearing and never came back home. Her daughter learned about her sentencing only after she was asked to deliver some clothes to Ms. Huang in the prison.
All five practitioners were arrested on September 20, 2017.
The police said to Ms. Lai while ransacking her home that they had been following the practitioners for several months and knew where they usually went and what buses or transfers they took, among other activities. The police confiscated Ms. Lai's computer, printer and other Falun Gong-related materials.
Ms. Zhong, Ms. Zeng, and Ms. Lai were detained at Chongqing No.1 Detention Center, and Mr. Qiu was held at Yuzhong District Detention Center.
Yuzhong District Court held a hearing of the five practitioners on February 5, 2018. The judge only sought their confirmation of whether the Falun Gong-related materials confiscated from their homes were theirs. The judge then forced them to sign the confirmation forms and did not announce a verdict.
Ms. Lai lost more than 40 pounds while she was detained. The detention center forbade her family from visiting her.
