(Minghui.org) Two Benxi City, Liaoning Province residents were sentenced on December 1, 2021 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Wu Chengjun and Mr. Li Feipeng were arrested at their respective homes on October 15, 2020 during a police sweep. Both of their homes were ransacked.
Mr. Wu was kept at the Liaoyang City Detention Center and his arrest was approved on November 20. Mr. Li was held at the Benxi City Detention Center.
Mr. Wu and Mr. Li were tried by the Hengren County Court on July 21 and August 31, 2021, respectively. Mr. Wu’s lawyer entered a not guilty plea for him. Mr. Li was represented by a family defender, who also entered a not guilty for him.
On December 1, the Hengren County Court sentenced Mr. Wu to eight years and Mr. Li to four and a half years with a 10,000-yuan fine. Mr. Wu has appealed the verdict.
Most of the sentencing cases of Falun Gong practitioners in the region have been handled by judge Wang Sijie of the Hengren County Court in the past few years. He is now facing complaints from several practitioners’ families.
In the past two decades, Mr. Wu has been repeatedly targeted for his faith.
He was first arrested in November 2002 prior to the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and held in a brainwashing center.
He was arrested again on October 28, 2010 at his workplace, the Benxi Iron and Steel Maintenance Center. He was held at the Benxi City Detention Center and later given two years at the Benxi City Forced Labor Camp.
The labor camp guards tied him up in a spread eagle position and shocked him with electric batons, while trying to force him to renounce Falun Gong.
In addition to physical torture, Mr. Wu was also forced to do unpaid labor. He worked with toxic substances, yet the labor camp didn’t provide any protective equipment to him. If he couldn’t finish the quota, the guards beat him with rubber sticks.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Bao Jianguo (包谏国), vice president of Hengren County Court: +86-24-48871805, +86-18641468678Wang Sijie (王思杰), presiding judge of Hengren County Court: +86-18641468567Chen Xiaoyun (陈晓云), judge of Hengren County Court: +86-18641468568
(More perpetrators contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Benxi City, Liaoning Province: Seven Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day