(Minghui.org) A Laoling City, Shandong Province resident was sentenced to 3.5 years on October 16, 2021, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Zang Shuling was arrested on March 24, 2021, while traveling in Yanshan County, Hebei Province. The police confiscated her car and other belongings. They detained her at the Dezhou Detention Center in Shandong. 

The police later submitted Ms. Zang’s case to the Laoling City Procuratorate. Her family hired a lawyer for her, but Huang Shuai, the vice president of Laoling City Court, tried to block the lawyer from representing her. 

Ms. Zang was tried through a virtual hearing on October 16, 2021. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her. The judge sentenced her to 3.5 years. 

Prior to her arrest, the police showed up at her home on June 2, 2020. The local village secretary, who accompanied the police, borrowed a ladder from one of her neighbors for the police to scale her fence. Another neighbor saw what happened and said to the police that it was illegal for them to enter her home when no one was at home. The police didn’t listen, but confiscated over 10,000 yuan in cash, two 20,000-yuan bank deposit notes, and two printers from her place. Her debit card was also taken away and her bank account was frozen afterward.