AP: Falun Gong HK [Practitioner] Goes On Trial For Sending VCDs

November 22, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net) HONG KONG (AP)--Chinese prosecutors argued that a Hong Kong man who mailed about 40 Falun Gong video compact discs inside China and had another 1,000 such VCDs in his home "committed a serious crime," his wife said Friday.

Suen Chung-man is facing charges of "spreading [...] propaganda" and "obstructing law enforcement," his wife, Wong Am, told the Associated Press.

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Wong said the trial lasted about 90 minutes. A verdict and sentence weren't expected for at least another month, she added.

Wong said she was allowed to speak with her husband briefly after the trial. She has only seen him once since his arrest in May. Suen's lawyer warned her to expect a prison sentence of at least five years.

Suen was detained while trying to cross from Hong Kong into Shenzhen on May 14, when the Chinese authorities found contact information for Falun Gong [practitioners] in China in his luggage, Suen's lawyer, Duan Bangliao, told the AP by phone.

Mainland police then raided a home Suen keeps in Shenzhen and seized 1,000 more Falun Gong VCDs, Wong said. Possession of such materials is illegal.

Falun Gong adherents in Hong Kong said they were worried authorities would punish Suen harshly as a warning to others.

"They've already decided he's guilty," said Kan Hung-cheung, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for Falun Gong.