Liaoning Woman Secretly Sentenced to Four Years, Mother-in-law Dies in Distress

(Minghui.org) After over a year of incommunicado detention, a Linghai City, Liaoning Province, woman was secretly sentenced to four years for practicing Falun Gong. She was admitted to Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on July 15, 2022. Her family, who has been kept in the dark concerning her situation, is very worried about her.

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

Ms. Yan Lijun, 52, was arrested at home on the evening of June 3, 2021. She had broken her arm two days prior and was still in a cast when the police took her away. Her husband, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, tried to stop them. The police refused to listen and ordered him to verbally abuse Falun Gong’s founder. When he didn’t comply, they accused him of interfering with law enforcement and arrested him as well, leaving his 85-year-old mother at home by herself. He was released after 15 days of administrative detention.

Ms. Yan’s arrest devastated her mother-in-law, who relied on her for care. She quickly fell ill and often asked her son, “What law did Lijun break? When will she return?” The elderly woman passed away in early 2022.

For the first three months after her arrest, the detention center ordered her husband to deposit 1,000 yuan each month for her. They then stopped asking for the deposit and refused to give him any updating her. Her husband inquired about her case at the Linghai City Procuratorate, but to no avail.

In early August 2022, Liaoning Province Women’s Prison officials informed Ms. Yan’s husband that she had been admitted to their facility on July 15, 2022. She was sentenced to four years by the Linghai City Court. The prison implied that the Jinzhou City Intermediate Court was also involved in her sentencing, but her husband wasn’t sure if the higher court had rejected her appeal or if it was the higher court that had decided her prison term behind the scenes.

While the prison claimed that her husband would be allowed to make a deposit for her and visit her in two to three weeks, it remains unclear if he has as yet been allowed to see her.

Prior to her latest arrest and sentencing, Ms. Yan was previously arrested on October 12, 2020, and detained for 15 days for talking to people about Falun Gong at a community fair. The police ransacked her home and searched her mother-in-law’s room, terrifying the elderly woman.

Related report:

Three Women Arrested for Practicing Falun Gong, Their Families Devastated