(Minghui.org) Six Shuangyashan City residents were sentenced to prison for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime. The presiding judge has personally threatened them to not appeal against their verdicts.
The six Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in October 2014 and tried on October 18, 2016. Their lawyers argued that the People’s Congress, China’s lawmaking body, has never enacted any law banning Falun Gong; hence, their clients should never have been prosecuted by exercising their constitutional right to freedom of belief.
The lawyers also protested against the legal procedure violations committed by the police and the court, both before and during the hearing.
Judge Gao Zhixin, however, announced guilty verdicts against all six practitioners on November 28.
Mr. Wang Dongsheng was given 7 years; Ms. Zhang Liyan and Ms. Wang Yuzhi were each given 4 years; Ms. Guo Hongxia was given 3.5 years; Ms. Shan Jinli and Mr. Zhu Wanhai were each given 3 years. Ms. Shan is Mr. Wang's mother.
According to insiders, the local 610 Office, an extra-legal agency tasked with eradicating Falun Gong and given power to override the judicial system, orchestrated the sentencing of the practitioners. Throughout the trial process, the 610 Office gathered the local police, courts, and procuratorates on multiple occasions to discuss how to punish the practitioners.
One order stated, “The police must gather further evidence against the defendants, and the procuratorate and the court must review the case carefully and sentence them based on the law.”
Officials who attended the 610 Office-initiated meetings included: Gao Zhixin (presiding judge of the case), Zhao Jingtao (head of Shuangyashan 610 Office), Qian Jichen and Feng Jingkun (presidents of Shuangyashan Intermediate Court), Zhao Xiaodong, Zhu Weixin, Huang Jianzhong, Mo Dan, and Wang Shouqin from Shuangyashan Procuratorate Indictment Department, Zhang Yubo (head of Shuangyashan Domestic Security Office), Liu Naijun (deputy chief of Jianshan Police Department), Men Yongfeng (head of Jianshan Domestic Security Office), and Guo Huayi and Liu Zhichao (staff of Shuangyashan 610 Office).
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