(Minghui.org) Two Falun Gong practitioners, Ms. Jia Mantao (贾曼韬) and Ms. Zhou Hongli (周红丽), were tried for the third time by Tianjin Hexi District Court on July 10, 2014. The court sentenced Ms. Jia and Ms. Zhou to 3.5 and 3 years in prison, respectively.

The practitioners were charged with “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a charge the Communist regime regularly adapts to sentence Falun Gong practitioners as part of its 15-year-long persecution campaign.

The practitioners' appeals were dismissed by Tianjin No.2 Intermediate People’s Court on September 15.

Ms. Jia and Ms. Zhou were arrested on July 16, 2013 and tried by Tianjin Hexi District Court on November 22 and again on December 26. Police had tracked their cellular phones for many days prior to the arrests.

Ms. Jia, 60, worked as an accountant in a foreign-invested company before she retired. On the day of her arrest, over ten plainclothes officers broke into and ransacked her home. They also seized her printer, computers, and fliers about Falun Gong.

Her son was interrogated at Youyi Police Station and released thirty hours later, after he was forced to sign a notice of his mother's detention.

The same morning, several plainclothes officers from the 610 Office broke into Ms. Zhou’s home while she was visiting her mother in the hospital. Officers restrained her family members while seizing cell phones, a computer, a printer, and pamphlets about the persecution of Falun Gong.

Ms. Zhou was arrested immediately upon returning home. Her child was also detained at a police station for over twenty hours.