(Minghui.org) Mr. Wang Jincang, 52, from Tianshui City, Gansu Province, was sent to prison on October 18, 2023 to serve a six-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Wang Jincang was arrested on September 20, 2022, after Li Yanlin, Li Xiaogang and two other officers of the Gangu County Domestic Security Office broke into his home by scaling his fence. They confiscated his Falun Gong books, computer and cellphone. Then they dragged him into the yard, pinched his neck, and beat him. He was held in the Qingshui Detention Center and then transferred to the Gangu County Detention Center after the police submitted his case to the Qinzhou District Procuratorate.
Mr. Wang hired a lawyer to represent him, but the lawyer was forced to drop his case after he was threatened by the authorities. The Qinzhou District Court held a hearing on September 20, 2023 and Mr. Wang testified in his own defense. He said that he didn’t violate the law for having the Falun Gong books or files in his computer. The presiding judge, Han Ruifeng, sentenced him to six years with a 7,000-yuan fine on September 25.
Mr. Wang quickly hired a lawyer to represent him in the appeal case. By law, appellants have ten business days to file an appeal, but judge Han reduced the ten-day appeal window, from September 26 to October 5 (which included the week-long national holiday in the first week of October).
When Mr. Wang’s lawyer submitted the appeal on October 8 (the tenth business day since his verdict was issued), judge Han refused to accept it on the grounds that the appeal deadline had passed. (In China, appeals are submitted to trial courts to forward to appeals courts).
Mr. Wang was transferred to the Dashaping Prison in Lanzhou City, the capital of Gansu, on October 18.
Mr. Wang began to practice Falun Gong before the persecution started. But after witnessing the persecution of his sister Ms. Wang Zhilan and her husband Mr. Niu Ruiyi, he stopped practicing. Mr. Niu was sentenced to six years (another report said nine years) in 2010. Ms. Wang was detained four times. She succumbed to the mental distress and passed away on May 8, 2012, while her husband, Mr. Niu, was still incarcerated.
Mr. Wang later developed severe symptoms of an illness but couldn’t afford to see a doctor. He resumed practicing Falun Gong and soon recovered.
Fearing she would be impacted by the persecution, Mr. Wang’s wife divorced him around 2021. His latest sentence left his son, a college student, in a dire financial situation. The young man had to quit school and go to work to support himself.
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