(Minghui.org) Changning District Court in Shanghai put Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Pang Guangwen and Mr. Zhao Bin on trial July 11, 2013, at 2 p.m. The court officials disregarded the defense attorney's solid evidence of his clients' innocence. The judge illegally sentenced Mr. Pang to five years in prison and Mr. Zhao to four years.
Mr. Pang had to be carried into the courtroom by three police officers. He was extremely weak due to a hunger strike to protest his innocence. His attorney delivered a strong defense. The judge nodded frequently and acknowledged the attorney’s arguments. Mr. Zhao, who did not hire an attorney, defended himself. The spectators were impressed with the defense. Even so, the court still sentenced Pang Guangwen and Zhao Bin to prison. The trial was really just a formality.
Mr. Pang and Mr. Zhao are both from Shandong Province. They ran a business in Sanzao Town in the Nanhui District of Shanghai. On April 27, 2012, they were both arrested at work by officers from the Jiangsu Road Police Station in the Nanhui District and taken to the Changning Detention Center.
Mr. Pang Guangwen was brutally tortured in the detention center. On May 14, he was handcuffed and shackled. On May 22, he started a hunger strike to protest. On May 27, he was transferred to the prison hospital, where they force-fed him. His hands and feet were tied to the bed and he could not move. Every day he was force-fed six bowls of food and injected with four to five bottles of salt water containing unknown drugs. After many good people pressured the authorities, he was released on August 1, 2012.
On July 5, 2013, the Changning District Court notified his family that Mr. Pang would have to be court on July 11 at 2:30 p.m. for the trial
On July 8 at 11:30 a.m., Mr. Pang went to the Changning District 610 Office to explain the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution. The officials would not listen to him and detained him in the Jiangsu Road Police Station next door at about 5 p.m. Then they transferred him to the Changning District Detention Center and held him there until the July 11 trial.
This has been a tough year for Mr. Pang's family. Besides the fact that Mr. Pang was arrested again and sentenced to five years in prison, his elderly father had just come to Shanghai from his hometown in Shandong for medical treatment and is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the hospital. Mr. Pang's daughter is less than five years old and cries each day for her dad to come home. His wife is suffering from shock and extreme sadness because her husband is in jail again, and her health is not good due to this stress. Even so, she has to cheer up every day to run the business in order to support the family.
We are calling for help rescue Mr. Pang Guangwen and Mr. Zhao Bin.
Participants the persecution of these two men:
Changning District 610 Office
Changning District Court officials: Zhu Liqun, Dai Yuqing (not sure whether he is from the court or the 610 Office)
