(Minghui.org) A 66-year-old woman was sentenced to 3.5 years for raising awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
Ms. Wang Yumei, a native of Anshan City, Liaoning Province, had been staying at her son’s place in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province to help care for her grandson. She was arrested on December 15, 2020 while distributing Falun Gong materials and was held at the Nanshan District Lockup in Shenzhen for 15 days.
As Ms. Wang persisted in raising awareness about the persecution, she was arrested again a week later on January 8, 2021, after being reported by a resident in the same subdivision for handing out Falun Gong materials. The police held her at the Nanshan District Detention Center and submitted her case to the Nanshan District Procuratorate in February 2021.
Ms. Wang stood trial in the Nanshan District Court on May 20, 2021. Her family was forced by the presiding judge to dismiss the lawyer they’d hired to enter her not guilty plea. The judge sentenced Ms. Wang to 3.5 years with a 2,000-yuan fine. She appealed with the Shenzhen City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold the original verdict on March 31, 2022.
The Nanshan District Procuratorate and Nanshan District Court have been designated to handle Falun Gong cases in the Shenzhen region. At least another fourteen practitioners have been sentenced by these agencies since 2021, including Xue Aimei, Tang Haihai, Sun Xuexin, Liang Zhanhong, Che Lihua, Gan Jiejun, Tong Suqing, Luo Zhiyin, Guan Yibo, Huang Yali, Liu Lixia, Tian Biqing, Sheng Li and Guo Zhongwei. Of particular note, Ms. Liu was sentenced to 11 years and Ms. Guan to 8 years.
Huang Fei (黄飞), head of the Nantou Police Station: +86-13823730399Ma Wenquan (马文权), president, Nanshan District Court: +86-13392898885Li Lihua (李丽华), president, Nanshan District Procuratorate: +86-13823399991
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)