Husband and Wife Admitted to Prison, Each Sentenced to Six and a Half Years for Their Faith

(Minghui.org) A married couple in Hailin City, Heilongjiang Province, has been transferred to prison. They were sentenced six and a half years each for refusing to give up their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Guo Libin and his wife, Ms. Chen Xitao, both vegetable farmers, were arrested at 3 a.m. on June 10, 2021, when they were getting ready to go work in their field. The police submitted their cases to the Hailin City Procuratorate on September 16. They were indicted and their cases were moved to the Hailin City Court in mid-October.

They were tried in the Hailin City Court on December 23, and each was sentenced to six and half years and fined 5,000 yuan. They appealed with the Mudanjiang City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold their original verdicts.

Ms. Chen was taken to Heilongjiang Women’s Prison in May 2022 and Mr. Guo to Mudanjiang Prison about two months later.

Previous Persecution

This isn’t the first time that the couple has been targeted for their faith. They were previously arrested at home on January 20, 2014. Personal items worth 20,000 yuan were confiscated, and the police held them in custody for a month.

Ms. Chen was arrested again at the Harbin Train Station on June 13, 2017. The police ransacked her home the next day and interrogated Mr. Guo and their child.

Mr. Guo, his two sisters, and their father and stepmother went to talk to Ding Yuhua, the head of Domestic Security Office, demanding Ms. Chen’s release. Ding’s husband Li Dongxian beat them. Mr. Guo’s sisters were then given ten days of detention, his stepmother five days of detention, and Ms. Chen 15 days of detention. After they were released, the police harassed Mr. Guo several times.

The police sneaked into the couple’s home in the middle of the night on August 7, 2017, and attempted to arrest their child, who was at home alone. The child resisted and the arrest failed. The police next harassed Mr. Guo’s sisters and their father.

Ms. Chen was arrested again on June 2, 2018, and detained for 15 days. Mr. Guo was seized at home on June 15 that year. The police first gave him nine days at the Hailin City Lockup and then extended it by 15 days.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Wang Qiang (王强), secretary, Mudanjiang Prison: [phone]Zhang Guomin (张国民), head, 610 Office: [phone]Jiang Xinkun (姜新昆), judge, Hailin City Court

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

Three Heilongjiang Residents, Including a Married Couple, Given Heavy Terms for Their Faith