(Minghui.org) A mother and daughter in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, were admitted to the Liaoning Province Second Women’s Prison on February 15, 2023 to both serve three years and two months for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Rongjun, a 73-year-old retired store sales associate, and her daughter, Ms. Na Yan, a nurse in her 40s, went missing on July 13, 2021. Their family immediately suspected that they were arrested again for practicing Falun Gong, but the authorities have never given the family any official notification of their whereabouts or case status.
The family made numerous inquiries with various government agencies and finally confirmed in May 2022 that the two women had indeed been arrested again for their faith and later secretly sentenced to prison by the Liaozhong District Court.
In May 2023, the family managed to find out about the prison admission in February. But they haven’t been able to obtain any new updates since. The family is very worried about the well-being of the mother and daughter.
Recap of Latest Persecution
After Ms. Wang and Ms. Na went missing on July 13, 2021, their family members looked for them everywhere, including Ms. Na’s workplace, the Shenyang City No. 6 Hospital, the local police station, and the residential committee, but to no avail. When the family talked to Ms. Na’s co-workers at the hospital, they noticed that their facial expressions appeared to be very nervous. Some said they didn’t know her situation and others said she went on a vacation.
It wasn’t until May 2022 that the family learned that the mother-daughter had both been sentenced to three years and two months.
The family recalled that on April 22, 2021, three months before the mother and daughter went missing, officers of the Nanshichang Police Station called Ms. Wang and asked for her address and Ms. Na’s phone number. Ms. Wang asked the police why they asked for her and her daughter’s personal information. The police claimed that if they had Ms. Na’s number, they wouldn’t go to Ms. Wang’s home to look for her. Ms. Wang didn’t comply.
Past Persecution
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Wang and Ms. Na have been targeted for their faith, which Ms. Wang credits for curing her many ailments, such as a stomach condition and headaches in just two months of her taking up Falun Gong in August 1998. After the persecution began one year later, she and her daughter were repeatedly arrested for raising awareness about how the regime spread propaganda to demonize the practice.
Ms. Wang was first arrested by the residential committee staff members in late April 2001 while walking on the street. She was taken to a brainwashing center and held there for nearly seven weeks.
Ms. Wang was arrested again on April 8, 2002, after being reported by her neighbor for talking to her about the Tiananmen self-immolation hoax against Falun Gong. Ms. Na was arrested with her and both of them were detained for a day.
Since then, whenever the police found Falun Gong posters in the neighborhood, they came to harass Ms. Wang. The harassment caused tremendous distress to Ms. Wang and her family members. Her husband often threatened to divorce her.
For filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution, Ms. Na was arrested on November 2, 2015. When Ms. Wang went to the police station to inquire about her case two days later, she was also arrested. Both of them were detained for 15 days.
Related Report:
Mother and Daughter Secretly Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong
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