Yu Yaou (于亚欧) is a reported Falun Gong practitioner from Jinan, Shandong Province, reported to have been sentenced in June 2026 to one year and six months in prison. Prisoner-monitoring records identify him as a former doctoral student at the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and as the husband of fellow practitioner Li Shanshan (李杉杉). (The roster renders his name “Yu Y aou”; the CHRD record renders it “Yu Ya’ou” — the Chinese name 于亚欧 is identical.)
Background. According to a 2010 report by the Falun Gong-affiliated outlet Minghui, Yu was denied his doctoral defense and graduation procedures after including a sentence thanking Falun Dafa in his dissertation, and was subsequently expelled by the institute. The same report states that Yu and his wife were detained in Guilin in 2008 and held in a brainwashing facility.
Detention and sentencing. The CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database records that Yu and his wife were detained in July 2025 in Jinan and held at the Jinan City Detention Center. In June 2026, Yu was sentenced to one year and six months in prison; his wife received three years and six months in the same proceeding. The criminal charge and the sentencing court are not identified in the available records.
Status. As of August 31, 2026, Yu Yaou is listed in the Rights Defense Network (维权网) monthly report among prisoners reported as serving sentences of under two years — dated evidence that he is reported serving his term, whose reported endpoint is January 2027. No release report has been located, and none is inferred.
The account above draws on Minghui.org, a Falun Gong-affiliated outlet, and the CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database; characterizations of the proceedings are the sources’. No independent (non-Falun Gong-affiliated) report on this case has been located.
Sources: CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database, record for 于亚欧 (“Yu Ya’ou”), entered July 21, 2026; Minghui.org, “中科院华南植物园要求父亲举报儿子,” April 22, 2010; 维权网, 《中国大陆在押政治犯、良心犯月度报告》 Issue 131, August 31, 2026.
Identity note: This is not 于耀 or any other Y-yao name — the roster’s “Yaou” is a romanization of 亚欧 (yà’ōu). His wife Li Shanshan’s account is documented separately; the two are not merged.