(Minghui.org) A Bin County, Heilongjiang Province resident was sentenced to nine years for his faith in Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Chen Huijiang, 53, was targeted in a mass arrest of Falun Gong practitioners in Harbin City and Daqing City in Heilongjiang Province on November 9, 2018. The police confiscated his Falun Gong books, calendars with information about Falun Gong, and many other personal belongings, some of which were later used as prosecution evidence against him.
Mr. Chen appeared in the Yilan County Court on July 30, 2019. His lawyer, Mr. Ji Zhongjiu, entered a not-guilty plea for him. Mr. Ji argued that no law criminalizes Falun Gong in China and that his client didn’t violate any laws in upholding his spiritual belief. The prosecutor recommended less than three years of prison.
About two and a half months after the hearing, the prosecutor retracted the original indictment and filed a new one, with the pretext that certain information in the previous indictment wasn’t accurate.
Mr. Chen's attorney was infuriated by the prosecutor’s unexpected move. He noted that none of the new evidence listed by the prosecutor was valid and that more importantly, the prosecutor now recommended seven years to even life in prison for Mr. Chen.
Attorney Ji Zhongjiu said, “After the police submitted my client’s case to the procuratorate in January 2019, it took them a total of five months to make the indictment decision, after having extended the investigation time twice and also returning the case to the police for additional evidence once. And now they say the information isn’t accurate? I think it’s obvious that someone is trying to control the case.”
Believing that he was unable to prevail against the totalitarian state in court, Ji Zhongjiu withdrew from Mr. Chen’s case.
Mr. Chen was soon scheduled to appear in court on Friday, October 25, 2019. The judge handed down the nine-year sentence with a 60,000-yuan fine on Tuesday, October 29.
Mr. Chen appealed the verdict and his case was submitted to the Harbin City Intermediate Court in December 2019.
So far, all 14 Falun Gong practitioners in Bin County arrested on November 9, 2018, including Mr. Chen, have been sentenced to prison, all by judge Zhang Anke of the Yilan County Court.
The following are the other thirteen practitioners' verdicts:
Mr. Li Weiku, 64, was sentenced to 9 years, with a 60,000-yuan fine.Ms. Song Jiuxiang was sentenced to 8 years, with a 60,000-yuan fine.Ms. Tan Guiqin was sentenced to 6 years, with a 40,000-yuan fine. Ms. Bai Liyan, 60, was sentenced to 5 years, with a 30,000-yuan fine.Ms. Wang Yaqin, 73, was sentenced to 5 years.Mr. Wang De, 66, was sentenced to 4 years, with a 20,000-yuan fine.Ms. Tan Guangmei, 52, was sentenced to 4 years.Ms. Wang Xiaorong, 40, was sentenced to 4 years.Ms. Meng Qinglan, 71, was sentenced to 4 years.Ms. Bai Lijie was sentenced to 3.75 years.Mr. An Guoqiang was sentenced to 2.5 years, with a 8,000-yuan fine.Mr. Wang Lianquan was sentenced to 2.5 years.Ms. Qu Honghua, Mr. An’s wife, was sentenced to 1.5 years, with a 5,000-yuan fine.
Ms. Tan Guiqin, Ms. Bai Liyan and Ms. Tan Guangmei have appealed the sentences.
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Perpetrator’s contact information:Zhang Anke (张安克), judge for the Yilan County Court: +86-13351817678