(Minghui.org) A Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province resident was sentenced to two years for practicing Falun Gong. The verdict against Mr. Ling Jianmin was announced on July 30, 2021, two years following his arrest, so he was released the next day.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Ling Jianmin
Mr. Ling, a 45-year-old operations manager at Haizhu Power Supply Bureau, drove to a residential area in Guangzhou City and left some informational materials about Falun Gong on people’s car windshields in July 2019. A driver reported him.
Through videos taken by surveillance cameras, the police identified his license plate number and put him on a wanted list.
When Mr. Ling returned from a trip to Hong Kong on August 1, 2019, he was arrested at customs in Shenzhen City. The police ransacked his home at around 4 a.m.
While being detained at Fanyu District Detention Center, Mr. Ling suffered from serious gout. The Fanyu District Procuratorate approved his arrest in late August 2019. Two months later the police submitted his case to the procuratorate, which then forwarded it to Haizhu District Procuratorate in early November, as the authorities are consolidating all Falun Gong cases in Guangzhou City to the procuratorates in Haizhu and Liwai Districts.
Mr. Ling was tried by the Haizhu District Court on November 13, 2020. His family and colleagues attended the hearing. He entered a not guilty plea for himself. He recounted how practicing Falun Gong enabled him to gain inner peace and gave him the courage to take on high-risk assignments at work. He also explained that many Chinese have been influenced by the slanderous propaganda against Falun Gong put out by the Chinese communist regime and have misunderstandings about it. He distributed information with the hope that people can learn the facts.
His two lawyers defended his innocence and argued that there is no legal basis for the persecution. The lawyers also argued that the prosecutor failed to justify the charges against Mr. Ling – “undermining law enforcement,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners.
Upon learning of Mr. Ling’s trial, many of his family, friends and colleagues said that they couldn’t understand why such a good person was facing prison time for his faith. One of his neighbors recalled how Mr. Ling put out a fire started at another neighbor’s new home and saved the new home.
On July 30, 2021, the judge sentenced Mr. Ling to two years with 3,000 yuan. He returned home the next day.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Chen Peng (陈澎), presiding judge of Haizhu District Court: +86-20-83005594, +86-13826472522Ye Weiwei (叶唯伟), prosecutor of Haizhu District Procuratorate: +86-15013145963Xu Jiexia (许洁霞), prosecutor of Haizhu District Procuratorate: +86-15818188031He Guifeng (何桂烽), officer of Fanyu District Domestic Security Office: +86-13682258694
Related reports:
Power Operations Director Faces Indictment for Passing Out Information about His Faith
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
