(Minghui.org) Five Suifenhe City, Heilongjiang Province residents were sentenced to prison on October 29, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Zhang Zhong was sentenced to three and a half years. Mr. Li Peng, his wife Ms. Wang Lei, and Mr. Shen Yuguo were each given two years and six months. The four were fined a total of 2,000 yuan. They are now in the process of filing appeals.
The fifth practitioner, Mr. Jiang Xuejun, was sentenced to eight months and fined 2,000 yuan. His family was previously extorted for 90,000 yuan by the authorities.
The five practitioners were arrested on the evening on January 18, 2024 for distributing Falun Gong materials. Mr. Li and Ms. Wang’s home was ransacked and their computer, printer, cellphone, bank card, IDs and Falun Gong books were confiscated. Mr. Jiang and Mr. Shen’s homes were raided the next day.
Mr. Li and Mr. Jiang were held in the Suifenhe City Detention Center, Ms. Wang in the Mudanjiang City Detention Center, and Mr. Shen and Mr. Zhang in the Dongning City Detention Center. Both Suifenhe City and Dongning City are under the jurisdiction of Mudanjiang City.
The arrests and detention of Mr. Li and Ms. Wang left their two boys, one in middle school and the other in elementary school, in a dire situation.
At the end of the practitioners’ 37 days of criminal detention, Zhang Xiaowen, the head of the Suifenhe City Domestic Security Division, ordered his subordinates to submit their cases to the Hailin City Procuratorate. Hailin City is also under the jurisdiction of Mudanjiang City.
The prosecutor returned the practitioners’ cases twice to the police in March and on May 23, 2024, for more evidence, before eventually indicting them and transferring their cases to the Hailin City Court.
The four male practitioners were transferred to the Hailin City Detention Center on July 19, 2024. It’s not clear whether Ms. Wang’s detention location was changed.
The five practitioners appeared in the Hailin City Court jointly on October 29. Their lawyers and family defenders entered not guilty pleas for them and argued that no law has criminalized Falun Gong in China. The prosecutor failed to present convincing evidence against the practitioners. Even the judge asked him to stop listing the evidence. Despite the lack of evidence, the judge still sentenced the practitioners to prison.
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