(Minghui.org) The Minghui website recently confirmed that two residents of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, were each sentenced to three-year prison terms for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Yonghua, 60, and Ms. Zhang Maoxia are co-mothers-in-law, with the former’s son married to the latter’s daughter. They went to visit their children in Binhai New Area, Tianjin, in early July 2023 and were both arrested at the young couple’s home. Both have since been held at the Binhai New Area Detention Center and denied family visits.
This is not the first time that the two women have been targeted for their faith. Ms. Zhang was previously sentenced to 5 years in 2007 and Ms. Wang to either 3 or 3.5 years in 2009. Both served time at the Hebei Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Shijiazhuang) and suffered brutal torture, including being hung up by handcuffed wrists and put in solitary confinement.
More About Ms. Wang’s Past Persecution
Ms. Wang was diagnosed with leukemia in 1998 but made a full recovery after she took up Falun Gong later that year. Her heart disease and breast cancer were also cured. Her husband, Mr. Guo Daoyou, was amazed and also began practicing Falun Gong.
The couple held firm to their faith after the persecution began and were repeatedly targeted. Ms. Wang went to appeal for Falun Gong one year but was intercepted at the Qinghuangdao City Bus Station. She was taken to a local police station and cuffed to a basketball stand in the snow. The cold triggered a relapse of her heart disease. The police forced her husband to pay 3,000 yuan before releasing her.
More than two dozen agents broke into the couple’s home on July 18, 2008 and confiscated their valuables, including a desktop computer, printer, laptop computer, rice cooker, and their two children’s school supplies. The police next took Mr. Guo, the sole breadwinner, to the Funing District Detention Center. Ms. Wang struggled to make ends meet and went to various government agencies to seek her husband’s release, only to be arrested herself on March 19, 2009 and taken to the same detention center.
The couple were later both convicted for their faith, with Ms. Wang being given 3.5 years and Mr. Guo 4 years. Mr. Guo was brutally tortured while serving time in Jidong Prison and died there on February 6, 2017, five years after his release. He was 60 years old.
Related reports:
Persecution of Falun Gong Claims 17 More Lives in First Half of 2017
Medical Miracles Brought About by Falun Dafa (Part 1)
Parents Jailed for their Belief, Children Calling for Help
Mr. Guo Daoyou Arrested in Qinhuangdao City, Family Without Support
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