(Minghui.org) Three residents of Linyi City, Shandong Province were convicted in early 2026 for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Ji Zhongsheng was sentenced to ten years. Ms. Xu Yuzhen was given eight years. Mr. Lyu Wenzhong received two years.
Mr. Lyu, 60, and a former employee of the Luozhuang Tax Bureau, was arrested on May 11, 2025, by Lanshan District Domestic Security Office agents. They ransacked his home and arrested his wife, Ms. Tian Hong. While Ms. Tian was released soon after, Mr. Lyu was detained for an unknown amount of time and then released on bail.
Ms. Xu and Mr. Ji were arrested the next day. They were held at the Hedong Detention Center. The police claimed that they had been following the practitioners for a long time. They also searched their two storage units.
The police submitted the case to the Lanshan District Procuratorate. The three practitioners were tried by the Lanshan District Court at the Linyi City Detention Center on January 23, 2026. The detention center was surrounded by armed police and plainclothes officers on the day of the hearing. The practitioners’ lawyers entered not guilty pleas for them.
The practitioners’ families soon received their convictions. They all appealed with the Linyi City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold their original verdicts. In late May 2026, Mr. Ji and Mr. Lyu were admitted to the Shandong Province Prison, and Ms. Xu was taken to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison.
Prior to the heavy prison term, Mr. Ji has been repeatedly targeted since the onset of the persecution in 1999. He was often harassed, his home was ransacked, and he was arrested and tortured for refusing to renounce his faith. He was forced to live away from home to avoid further persecution. See the related report for details of his past persecution.
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