(Minghui.org) A Dandong City, Liaoning Province resident was secretly sentenced to one year for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Mo Yaqin, 73, was arrested on December 12, 2018, when she went to Wulongbei Police Station to urge the police to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. The police said they had been monitoring her for a long time. They confiscated the 300 yuan banknotes printed with information about Falun Gong from her purse. They also took her home key, ransacked her residence and confiscated her Falun Gong books.

After 15 days of detention, the Zhen'an District Procuratorate approved Ms. Mo's arrest. During the five months after that, her family didn't hear any update about her case, nor were they allowed to visit her at Dandong City Detention Center.

When her lawyer visited her at the detention center recently, he was surprised to find that Zhen'an District Court had held a secret hearing of Ms. Mo on March 20, 2019.

Ms. Mo told her lawyer that she testified in her own defense during the hearing. She argued that the Falun Gong books confiscated from her home couldn't be used as evidence against her because there was no legal basis for the persecution and the ban on Falun Gong books had been lifted in 2011 in a notice issued by the Chinese publication bureau.

She also said that she used to suffer from many ailments and was emaciated. Her health completely recovered after she learned Falun Gong. Despite her age now, she is still very energetic and has no trouble doing house chores.

The judge sentenced her on March 28, 2019.

Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Mo served one year in a labor camp for talking to her neighbors about Falun Gong in November 2007.