(Minghui.org) A Dalian City, Liaoning Province resident was sentenced to two years on March 17, 2022 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Due to Ms. Wang Jinfeng’s advanced age and health condition, she is allowed to serve time outside of prison.
Ms. Wang’s sentencing came after two years of repeated arrests and harassment due to her effort to raise awareness about the 23-year-long persecution.
She was first arrested on April 8, 2020, after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong in a village with another practitioner, Ms. Tian. Both women in their 70s were taken to a local hospital for physical examination required for detention. Both were forced to pay 300 yuan examination fee.
The police ransacked their homes in the afternoon. Ms. Wang’s computer, printer, Falun Gong books, as well as tools she used to make informational materials about Falun Gong, including hole puncher, staples, laminator, cartridge and copy paper, were confiscated.
Both women were released at around 8 p.m. that evening.
Ms. Wang was arrested again on November 9, 2020, while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong in a market with another practitioner, Ms. Wang Yanfeng. The police took them to two different hospitals for physical examination and charged each of them 900 yuan. Both of them were again rejected admission by the local detention center and released at around 11 p.m.
Sometime in 2021, the police took Ms. Wang Jinfeng to the hospital again for a physical examination and forced her to pay 800 yuan for it. They also took her to the Jinzhou District Court and threatened to sentence her to 2.5 years.
The police took Ms. Wang for a fourth physical examination on January 7, 2022 and charged her 2,000 yuan. The police attempted to extort another 5,000 yuan from her, but she refused to pay.
On February 3, 2022, Ms. Wang’s family received a call from a residential committee staffer, who ordered her to report to the justice bureau on February 8 to answer some questions.
The Jinzhou District Court informed Ms. Wang on March 14 that she was scheduled to stand trial three days later. They also ordered her daughter to connect her to the online hearing through her cellphone.
During the trial, the judge accused Ms. Wang of undermining law enforcement with a cult organization, the standard pretext used to imprison Falun Gong practitioners in China. Ms. Wang maintained that she didn’t violate any law and added that no law ever criminalizes Falun Gong in China. The judge sentenced her to two years and allowed her to serve time outside of prison.