(Minghui.org) A Yinan City, Shandong Province resident arrested in July 2022 for practicing Falun Gong was recently secretly sentenced to 4.5 years.

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

Ms. Gong Pirong, 52, was arrested on July 25, 2022 while doing a COVID-19 test. Her two residences were ransacked. The police didn’t allow her family to visit her at the Linyi City Detention Center, nor did they accept the clothes her family sent her.

Ms. Gong developed high blood sugar in August and was taken to the hospital for treatment. Her family was ordered to pay 600 yuan for her physical examination, but were still denied visits with her. Her family, especially her 98-year-old mother, are very worried about her. 

Her family recently learned that Ms. Gong has been sentenced to 4.5 years, but the authorities refused to provide any information about her case and current status. As the weather was getting cold, they worry whether she has enough clothes to keep her warm. 

Ms. Gong took up Falun Gong in 1999. Many of her ailments that had tormented her for years disappeared in two weeks. In October 2000, a year after the onset of the persecution, Ms. Gong went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, only to be intercepted by the police in Tianjin and taken to a detention center. She was later transferred to the Yinan County Detention Center and forced to work without pay. She was released after her family paid the police nearly 8,000 yuan.

Ms. Gong was reported by a village official in the spring of 2001 and taken to a local brainwashing center. She was beaten and forced to pay another 300 yuan in illegal fines.

The police suddenly showed up at Ms. Gong’s home in 2002 and searched everywhere. While they didn’t find anything related to Falun Gong, they harassed her daughter at school, terrifying the little girl.