(Minghui.org) Dr. Shen Guoshen, 47, a Chinese medicine doctor in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, has been denied phone calls and visits with his family since he was sent to the Jinzhong Prison in May 2023 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Dr. Shen was arrested on December 29, 2021 and sentenced to three years and eight months and fined 5,000 yuan on December 12, 2022. The Taiyuan City Intermediate Court rejected his appeal at an unknown date and he was transferred to the Jinzhong Prison on May 11, 2023. His family requested to visit him but they were refused. The prison said that Falun Gong practitioners who refused to renounce their faith were barred from seeing or calling their families. They were only allowed to write letters.
The prison assigned Dr. Shen to Team One in September 2023 and told him that he could now receive money from his family by linking his bank account to his commissary account. He thus submitted his bank information as required. While the prison set up a commissary account for him in November 2023, they did not link it to his bank account as promised. His loved ones were thus unable to wire money to him. They called the prison numerous times but the matter is still not resolved at the time of this report. As a result, Dr. Shen is still unable to purchase daily necessities in the prison.
This is the second time that Dr. Shen has served time at the same prison for practicing Falun Gong. He was previously given five years two decades ago.
Latest Arrest and Sentencing
Zhang Xiapeng, an agent of the Taiyuan City 610 Office, began to harass Dr. Shen in late 2021 and attempted to force him to renounce Falun Gong. When he refused to comply, Zhang stayed at his home for hours. Dr. Shen’s ailing mother, who was nearly 80 years old and lives with him, was unable to stand the harassment and drove Zhang away.
Several plainclothes officers broke into Dr. Shen’s home again on December 29, 2021 and forced his mother to tell them where he was. After confirming that he was working at the community clinic, the police went there and arrested him. They brought Dr. Shen home and searched his place. His cellphone was taken but he was not given a list of the items they confiscated.
The police claimed they arrested Dr. Shen because someone saw him placing things into people’s bicycle baskets a year ago.
Dr. Shen was taken to the Taiyuan City No. 3 Detention Center the next day on criminal detention. His arrest was soon approved by Yuan Hongjuan of the Yingze District Procuratorate.
Dr. Shen was transferred to the Taiyuan City No. 2 Detention Center in February 2022. He was indicted in April. Judge He Linhai of the Yingze District Court was assigned to handle his case.
The court held a virtual hearing of Dr. Shen’s case on July 8, 2022. The judge prohibited his family from attending the session, citing the COVID pandemic as an excuse. Dr. Shen insisted that he didn’t violate any law by practicing Falun Gong. His two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for him.
Both judge He and prosecutor Yuan asked the lawyers, “Hasn’t your local justice bureau provided training for you or had a meeting with you?” The lawyers weren’t deterred by the implied threat to have their local justice bureau pressure them to discipline them for representing a Falun Gong practitioner. They said it was the judge and the prosecutor who broke the law in wrongfully prosecuting their client, and they wouldn’t back off even if the justice bureau tried to pressure them into dropping the case.
The judge held another virtual hearing of Dr. Shen’s case on September 8, before sentencing him to three years and eight months with a 5,000-yuan fine on December 12, 2022.
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