(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Zhengyong, 57, from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to seven years and fined 50,000-yuan in late 2024 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Wang, who works for a property management company, began practicing Falun Gong in March 1998 and credits the practice for resolving her severe stomach problems, rhinitis, gynecological inflammation, breast lobular hyperplasia and other diseases. After the persecution began the following year, she held firm to her faith and was repeatedly targeted.

In December 2001, her employer, the Daqing Petroleum Administration Housing Construction and Development Company, withheld several thousands of yuan from her pay because she refused to renounce Falun Gong.

Officers from the Donghu Police Department arrested her at work on October 22, 2015 and took her to the Daqing City First Detention Center. The local procuratorate urged the police to release her on bail for medical reasons. The police extorted 20,000 yuan to pay the bail bond and released her on November 27, 2015.

More than 30 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested on May 18, 2023, including Ms. Wang. Her home was raided and her Falun Gong books were confiscated. She was released on bail five hours later.

Officers from the Donghu Police Department took Ms. Wang back into custody on May 19, 2024, when her one-year bail period ended. The Ranghulu District Court held a secret virtual hearing of her case in late September 2024 without notifying her family. Prosecutor Feng Guang of the Ranghulu District Procuratorate was present during the trial, but Ms. Wang’s family still does not know who the presiding judge was, or when she was sentenced. She is currently appealing the wrongful conviction.