Tianjin Woman Sentenced to 5.5 Years for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A Tianjin resident has been sentenced to five and a half years for her faith in Falun Gong, Minghui.org recently learned.

After nearly ten months in detention, Ms. Wei Sanmei has lost a significant amount of weight and her hair had turned gray. She is currently appealing the wrongful conviction.

Ms. Wei was arrested on the morning of July 12, 2024, by Zhai Bangjun, chief of the Fengnian Village Police Station, along with instructor Xu Shengde and other officers. Her Falun Gong books, portrait of Falun Gong’s founder, and a printer were confiscated. She was put on criminal detention at the Fengnian Village Detention Center. The Dongli District Procuratorate later indicted her.

Ms. Wei appeared in the Dongli District Court on November 12, 2024 and was recently convicted. The intermediate court is expected to make an appeals ruling in July 2025.

Prior to her latest persecution, Ms. Wei has been targeted multiple times for her faith since the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution in 1999. While resting at home on September 28, 2002 (a Saturday), she was ordered to go to her workplace, the Tianjin Airport, as the general manager was looking for her. She rushed there, only to be told by her line manager and the general manager that the police had come to her home. She went back and was arrested by officers from the Xinli Village Police Station. After 25 days at the Dongli District Detention Center, she was given one year at the Banqiao Women’s Forced Labor Camp, where she was subjected to torture.

Three officers showed up at Ms. Wei’s home again on the morning of November 15, 2015. As she was caring for an ailing family member, she didn’t open the door. The police then harassed her neighbor and came back to bang on her door. After she was forced to open the door, the police searched her place and took photos around her home. They confiscated her Falun Gong books and questioned Ms. Wei as to whether she had filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former communist regime leader who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. She said she had, but maintained that she didn’t violate any law in filing the complaint.

Translator’s note: Back in 2015, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that they would accept all complaints filed with them. This led to a tidal wave of criminal complaints against Jiang by Falun Gong practitioners. Many of their complaints were intercepted by the police, who also harassed the practitioners at their homes.