(Minghui.org) Three Kunming City, Yunnan Province, residents recently lost their appeals against wrongful prison sentences for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

The three practitioners, Ms. Ou Xuehui, Ms. Yao Zuming, and Ms. Zhou Xulin, were arrested on August 13, 2024. All of their homes were also ransacked. Ms. Ou and Ms. Yao were held at the Kunming City Detention Center. Ms. Zhou was released on bail as she was deemed unfit for detention due to her poor health.

The police first submitted the practitioners’ case to the Jinning Procuratorate, which then forwarded it the Xishan District Procuratorate. Prosecutor Guo Yanni later indicted the practitioners.

The practitioners appeared in the Xishan District Court on January 26, 2025 and were sentenced at a later time. Ms. Ou, in her 50s, was sentenced to four years with a 10,000-yuan fine. Ms. Zhou, 68, was given three and a half years and fined 10,000 yuan. Ms. Yao received two years with an 8,000-yuan fine. All three of them appealed with the Kunming City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold their original verdicts on March 28, 2025.

Ms. Zhou was taken to the hospital for a physical exam after her conviction. She was diagnosed with diabetes and dementia. Her family applied to have her serve time outside of prison, but the police took her back into custody at the Kunming City Detention Center on April 10, 2025.

An insider revealed that the authorities plan to take all three of them from the Kunming City Detention Center to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison soon. The police also threatened to empty the prison and use it specifically to detain Falun Gong practitioners.