(Minghui.org) Mr. Han Xuezhi was seized at work on November 1, 2018 and put in criminal detention that afternoon. A police officer sent photos of him being interrogated to his wife and tried to threaten her to drop his defense lawyer. The Changsha City, Hunan Province resident is now facing indictment after nearly four months of detention at the Railroad Detention Center.
Mr. Han's wife was interrogated two months later and was told that the police targeted her husband because they suspected him of providing WiFi hot spot devices to other Falun Gong practitioners to send information to the public and persuade them to quit the Chinese communist regime.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been severely persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. With strict information censorship in China, many practitioners are using creative means to spread information and raise awareness about the persecution.
The police alleged that one practitioner named Peng Songwei, 71, who was arrested on August 7, 2018, for sending information about quitting the communist party at Changsha Train Station, testified that Mr. Han had provided him with a WiFi hot spot device and shown him how to operate it.
Mr. Han denied the allegation against him. His lawyer tried to visit him on November 5, 2018, but was denied a meeting by the police, who also rejected the lawyer's request to have his client released on bail.
The police submitted Mr. Han's case to the local procuratorate on November 30. His lawyer was told that the procuratorate didn't intend to issue an arrest warrant against Mr. Han and that he'd be released on bail after posting a bond of 30,000 yuan to the police.
The section chief in charge of reviewing the case at the procuratorate signed a “not-issuing-arrest-warrant” document on December 7, only to have the decision overridden by the head of the procuratorate. It remains unclear why the procuratorate suddenly reversed its decision.
Mr. Han was issued a formal arrest warrant and saw his case moved to the indictment division of the procuratorate on January 22, 2019. His lawyer visited the prosecutor assigned to the case that day.
The prosecutor warned the lawyer that another lawyer in Changsha had his license revoked for a year for representing Falun Gong practitioners. The prosecutor also demanded that the lawyer persuade Mr. Han to admit guilt in exchange for a suspended prison sentence.
The lawyer requested bail for his client, but the prosecutor turned him down on the grounds that Mr. Peng had already been released on bail and that they must keep Mr. Han in custody in order to prevent the two practitioners from discussing the case with each other.
One day after Mr. Han's arrest, officers from Changsha Domestic Security Division and Hengshan County Police Department came to his home on November 2 and confiscated his Falun Gong books and computer.
The police brought his wife and father-in-law to the police station for interrogation. They also seized his father-in-law's key and searched his other residence in the countryside.
The police denied Mr. Han's family visitation and also rejected his request to make a phone call to his mother, who had just undergone brain surgery shortly before he was arrested.
Two weeks after his arrest was approved by the procuratorate on December 7, the police returned to Mr. Han's home on December 25 and interrogated his wife and father-in-law again.
Su Chunling, the deputy head of Changsha Domestic Security Division, revealed that they targeted Mr. Han because Mr. Peng had given information on him. Su threatened Mr. Han's wife that her husband's case was very significant. He asked for her cellphone number.
Su harassed Mr. Han's wife every day from then on and threatened her to dismiss the lawyer she hired to represent Mr. Han.
Su also sent photos of Mr. Han being interrogated to his wife and said that Mr. Han was crying and regretted having spread information about Falun Gong, likely to try to make her cooperate with him.