(Minghui.org) Four residents in Huainan City, Anhui Province, were sentenced for their faith in Falun Gong on November 19, 2020, Minghui.org learned recently.
Ms. Lyu Wenfen and her younger son Mr. Yue Cangsheng were each given seven and a half years with a 25,000-yuan fine. Their terms were scheduled to end in March 2027, but they were both released ahead of time, with Ms. Lyu on April 16, 2026, and her son on March 1, 2026.
Ms. Lyu’s older son, Mr. Yue Pengcheng, received seven years and three months with a 20,000-yuan fine. He is scheduled for release at the end of his term on December 1, 2026.
Ms. Cheng Xiulan, 83, was sentenced to three and a half years with a 10,000-yuan fine. She was released on March 1, 2023, after her term ended.
Ms. Lyu and Ms. Cheng were arrested on the morning of September 1, 2019, when the former was handing some Falun Gong materials over to the latter. Ms. Lyu later learned in prison that the police had been monitoring her from an apartment unit across from hers since August 2019.
Mr. Yue Cangsheng, an employee of the Fengtai County Yilian Pharmaceutical Company, was arrested outside his apartment building on the same day. His brother, a teacher at the Jingzhong Middle School, was seized at work at around the same time.
Led by Deputy Chief Ma Gang of the Fengtai County Police Department, a large group of officers raided Ms. Lyu’s home. They confiscated her Falun Gong books, computer, cell phone, music players, portable drive, camera, printer, and other valuables. They had to call in another cruiser to take away the confiscated items.
Ms. Cheng’s home was also raided with many items confiscated, including her Falun Gong exercise tapes, radio, discs, and calendars bearing Falun Gong messages.
The four practitioners were handcuffed and restrained in metal chairs for interrogation. That afternoon, the two women were put in the Huainan City Detention Center, and the two brothers in the Fengtai County Detention Center.
The Fengtai County Court held a hearing of the case on November 18, 2020. All four practitioners were handcuffed and shackled during the trial. The Yue brothers were extremely thin because they had been given very little food in detention.
Presiding judge Sun Yongqiang convicted the four practitioners the next day. Assistant judges Li Xiaomin and Liu Benrong, clerk Li Mengting, and prosecutors Zhu Jing and Liang Huihui, signed the verdicts.
The four practitioners appealed, and the Huainan City Intermediate Court ruled against them on December 25, 2020.
The Yue brothers were admitted to the Suzhou Prison on January 12, 2021, and their mother and Ms. Cheng to the Anhui Province Women’s Prison one week later.
In July 2021, the Fengtai County Court garnished 15,283.64 yuan from Ms. Lyu’s bank account and 7,900.84 yuan from Mr. Yue Cangsheng’s account to cover their court fines. Mr. Yue Pengcheng did not have any savings.
The Yue brothers were abused while held at the Fengtai County Detention Center. The head inmate often instructed others to beat them. The guard on duty saw what happened through surveillance cameras but simply yelled “quiet” without disciplining the inmates. The beatings often continued.
The brothers were also forced to sit on a small stool for long hours. They had constipation and hemorrhoids as a result. Having lost their father when young, they relied on their uncle to send in money to their and their mother’s prison commissary accounts every month to buy daily necessities. They could only afford instant noodles. The food provided was very poor. They had to take cold showers all year long.
Guard Xia Guangwu once dragged Mr. Yue Cangsheng to a room without surveillance cameras. He drew the window shades and instructed several inmates to remove Mr. Yue’s pants and lashed him on the buttocks using a bamboo whip. Xia had him shackled for over two weeks after that. The wounds on his bottoms festered. He had to expose his buttocks during sleep to avoid being infected. A big cone-shaped sore later developed on his buttocks.
After the brothers were admitted to the Suzhou Prison, Mr. Yue Cangsheng was assigned to the fourth division and Mr. Yue Pengcheng to the sixth division. They were forced to do hard labor for over ten hours every day. What a factory outside the prison could not finish in one month, the prison made the inmates complete the production tasks within ten days. The pay however was only a few hundred yuan every month.
Mr. Yue Cangshang once slipped and fell while holding his breakfast. The hot congee poured over his arm and he suffered severe burns. Yet the guards still forced him to work that day. He was later moved to the eleventh division, where he was made to clean the cells, take out trash, scrub the bathroom, and load/unload heavy things. To this day, his fingers and wrists still feel pain due to the hard labor he did in prison.
Ms. Lyu and Ms. Cheng were also abused after being admitted to the Anhui Province Women’s Prison. They were held in the thirteenth division, which was specifically designated to target Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Cheng was released on March 1, 2023. Mr. Yue Cangsheng was released on March 1, 2026. Ms. Lyu was released on April 16, 2026. They are still subjected to ongoing surveillance.
Anhui Province requires three agencies to pick up Falun Gong practitioners from prison when their terms end. Their local police stations, judicial bureaus, and street or village committees must together process a “registration upon prison release” within ten days of their release.
The three agencies also force the practitioners to sign a “five-year corrections agreement” and put them on the government’s long-term surveillance list. The practitioners must provide their contact information and home addresses so the agencies could “visit them” once every month. The practitioners must also report to the agencies if they want to go outside. They are not allowed to travel out of the country.
Mr. Yue Pengcheng is set to finish his term on December 1, 2026. Besides him, at least 14 other practitioners are still held at various divisions of the Suzhou Prison, including:
The first division: Mr. Sun Zhengyi (around 42 years old and serving a four-year term).
The second division: Mr. Yang Xude (around 78 years old).
The third division: Mr. Hong Buzhen (around 60 years old).
The fourth division: Mr. Nie Jingchuan (around 74 years old) and Mr. Zhang Qiping (around 61 and serving a three-year term).
The fifth division: Mr. Hu Xiang (around 37 years old and serving a three-year term).
The seventh division: Mr. Yu Zhiqiang (around 76 years old and serving a three-year-and-eight-month term).
The ninth division: Mr. Ding Xianyou (around 63 and serving a four-year term).
The tenth division: Mr. Chen Guojun (around 41 years old and serving a four-year term).
The eleventh division: Mr. Zhang Guocheng (around 64 years old).
The twelfth division (for the elderly and the infirm): Mr. Tang Zhifei (around 43 and serving an eight-year term).
The nineteenth division: Mr. Zhou Shanyong (around 53 years old and serving a nine-year term); Mr. Shi Xiancheng (around 42 years old); and Mr. Liu Hongming (around 48 years old).