Shaanxi Couple’s Appeal of Lengthy Wrongful Sentences Rejected

(Minghui.org) The appeal filed by a married couple against the wrongful sentencing for their faith in Falun Gong was recently turned down.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Wang Pingchuan, 47, and Ms. Zhao Xijuan, 42, of Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, were reported on May 25, 2020, for putting up stickers about Falun Gong at a bus station. Over 50 police officers arrested them on June 5 and confiscated their Falun Gong materials and many other personal belongings. The police held the couple in the Sanyao Detention Center and didn’t allow their family to visit them or deliver clothes to them.

The couple stood trial in the Yanta District Court on December 4, 2020. They pleaded not guilty. Mr. Wang testified in his own defense. He said that Falun Gong teaches people to be kind and considerate. He added that the cash confiscated from his home was their own income earned through hard work. Both he and Ms. Zhao refused to answer questions, yet the judge took their silence as agreeing to the charge.

The judge sentenced Mr. Wang to nine years with a 30,000-yuan fine and Ms. Zhao to seven years with a 20,000-yuan fine on December 16, 2021.

The authorities kept the couple’s family in the dark about their case status. By the time their family learned about their sentences, the couple had already filed appeals with the Xi’an City Intermediate Court.

Their family hired a lawyer to represent them in the appeal. According to the lawyer, the lower court judge sentenced the couple without any legal basis, even when the judge stated in the verdict that “the crime is very serious and the harm to society is significant.”

The lawyer added that it is illegal for the police to ransack someone’s home without any evidence that the law has been violated. The police themselves designated the Falun Gong materials confiscated from the couple as “illegal cult items,” when it is a legal requirement that an independent agency verifies the evidence.

The lawyer insisted that the higher court try the couple’s case. If his clients were not acquitted, he said the judge should at least reduce their sentences.

The higher court, after claiming it had “reviewed the couple’s case and taken into consideration their own and their lawyer’s opinions,” decided not to hear their case and ruled to uphold their original verdicts on May 25. The lawyer later discovered that the judge had made changes to his defense statement without his knowledge and used the falsified version to sway the intermediate court.

The lawyer attempted to visit the couple after the higher court issued its decision, but the detention center refused to allow him in, claiming that visits would only be allowed when the court ruled to enforce their prison sentences. The lawyer sought help from various law enforcement and judiciary agencies, but still to no avail.

Ms. Zhao and Mr. Wang have been denied family visits since their arrests two years ago. Mr. Wang, who was previously hospitalized due to his physical condition, has been taken back to the Xi’an City Detention Center. It’s only in the last two months that the authorities have allowed their family to make deposits for them to buy daily necessities, but they are still not permitted to mail them clothes.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Zhang Yanping (张燕萍), presiding judge, Xi’an City Intermediate Court: [phone]Luo Chengxing (骆成兴), judge, Xi’an City Intermediate Court: [phone]Yuan Bing (袁兵), judge, Xi’an City Intermediate Court: [phone]Li Yanqing (李燕青), clerk, Xi’an City Intermediate Court: [phone]

Related reports:

Married Couple Given Heavy Prison Terms for Their Faith

Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province: Twenty Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced to Prison by One Court Since 2019