(Minghui.org) A married couple’s appeal against the wrongful sentences for their faith in Falun Gong was recently rejected.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Yu Haiyong and Ms. Wang Xuemei, of Haiyang City, Shandong Province, were arrested on January 9, 2021 in a police sweep. They appeared in Haiyang City Court on January 17, 2022. Their two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for them. In March, the judge sentenced Mr. Yu to two years with a 6,000-yuan fine and Ms. Wang to one and a half years with a 5,000-yuan fine. They appealed with the Yantai City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold their original verdicts.
Mr. Yu, 50, and Ms. Wang were both award-winning middle school teachers. Mr. Yu first took up Falun Gong in 1997 and Ms. Wang in 1998. Mr. Yu credits the practice for broadening his heart and enabling him to take personal interests lightly. His Hepatitis B, tinnitus and headache all disappeared in a month. Ms. Wang shared similar experiences and she is grateful to have been healthy since.
But because of their upholding Falun Gong in the face of the persecution, Mr. Yu was repeatedly arrested and held in brainwashing centers and detention centers. When their son was only one, Ms. Wang was arrested at school on February 1, 2001 and transferred to the Shandong Province No.2 Women’s Forced Labor Camp on March 8 that year. Mr. Yu was also arrested and given three years at Shandong Province No.2 Forced Labor Camp on March 30, 2001.
After they were released, Mr. Yu lost his job as a teacher. To avoid non-stop harassment, the couple moved to the nearby Yantai City. Yet Mr. Yu was arrested again on April 17, 2007 while working his new job and taken to the Zhifu District Brainwashing Center.
On the same day, Ms. Wang and their seven-year-old son were also arrested and taken back to Haiyang City. Their valuables at home were confiscated. The boy wasn’t allowed to go back to school and forced to drop out. While Ms. Wang was held at the Haiyang City Detention Center for a month, it’s not clear how their son managed to live on his own.
Related report:
Haiyang City, Shandong Province: Six Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced to Prison
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