(Minghui.org) A retired factory worker in Maoming City, Guangdong Province has been detained for over nine months for his faith in Falun Gong. His scheduled hearings on May 5 and 6, 2020 have been postponed by the Maonan District Court due to unknown reasons. It’s not clear whether the court has scheduled a new court date from him.
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. Pan Peide, 64, was arrested at home on September 16, 2019 by officers pretending to be delivery workers. He has been held at Maoming City No.1 Detention Center since.
The police targeted Mr. Pan shortly after someone reported seeing posters on telephone poles and other places on April 17, 2019 that said “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” They suspected it was Mr. Pan who put up the posters and began to monitor him.
On the afternoon of his arrest, the police took Mr. Pan to his other residence and ransacked the place. His calendars with information about Falun Gong and photo of Falun Gong’s founder were confiscated.
While interrogating Mr. Pan at the police station, the officers didn’t provide any food or water to him. They also smoked non-stop around him, knowing that Mr. Pan doesn’t smoke.
When Mr. Pan’s two sons went to the property management office to see the video recording of the arrest of their father, a staffer told them that the police had already forced them to delete the video.
After Mr. Pan was indicted in late February 2020 and his case was forwarded to Maonan District Court, the presiding judge Ke Xuejun refused to meet with his lawyer. Ke also said to the lawyer, “You can go ahead and sue me if you have objections.”
Mr. Pan’s lawyer visited him at the detention center on March 13 and June 22. He said Mr. Pan is in good spirits and the rashes he developed in the first few months of detention have disappeared.
