Mother and Daughter Secretly Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Ten months after a mother and daughter in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province went missing, their family finally confirmed that the two women are held at the Shenyang City No.1 Detention Center and that both of them have been sentenced to three years and two months for practicing Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Wang Rongjun, a 72-year-old retired store sales associate, and her daughter, Ms. Na Yan, a nurse in her 40s, went missing on July 13, 2021. Their family members looked for them everywhere, including Ms. Na’s workplace, the Shenyang City No.6 Hospital, the local police station, and the residential committee, but to no avail. When the family talked to Ms. Na’s co-workers at the hospital, they noticed that their facial expressions appeared to be very nervous. Some said they didn’t know her situation and others said she went on a vacation.

Not until recently did the family learn that the mother-daughter duo are being held at the Shenyang City No.1 Detention Center and that they have been sentenced by the Liaozhong District Court.

The family recalled that on April 22, 2021, three months before the mother and daughter went missing, officers of the Nanshichang Police Station called Ms. Wang and asked for her address and Ms. Na’s phone number. Ms. Wang questioned the police why they asked for her and her daughter’s personal information. The police claimed that if they had Ms. Na’s number, they wouldn’t go to Ms. Wang’s home to look for her. Ms. Wang didn’t comply.

This isn’t the first time that Ms. Wang and Ms. Na have been targeted for their faith, which Ms. Wang credits for curing her many ailments, such as a stomach condition and headaches in just two months. Since the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution in 1999, one year after they took up Falun Gong, they have been repeatedly arrested for raising awareness about how the regime spread propaganda to demonize the practice.

Ms. Wang was first arrested by the residential committee staff members in late April 2001 while walking on the street. She was taken to a brainwashing center and held there for nearly seven weeks.

Ms. Wang was arrested again on April 8, 2002, after being reported by her neighbor for talking to her about the Tiananmen self-immolation hoax against Falun Gong. Ms. Na was arrested with her and both of them were detained for a day.

Since then, whenever the police found Falun Gong posters in the neighborhood, they came to harass Ms. Wang. The harassment caused tremendous distress to Ms. Wang and her family members. Her husband often threatened to divorce her.

For filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution, Ms. Na was arrested on November 2, 2015. When Ms. Wang went to the police station to inquire about her case two days later, she was also arrested. Both of them were detained for 15 days.