(Minghui.org) Four Falun Gong practitioners and a family member in two neighboring provinces remain detained months after their trial was suddenly put on hold on April 23, 2025.
Mr. He Hongjun and his wife Ms. Fu Wenhui, of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, went to Mr. Lan Qingzhong’s print shop in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia (about 100 miles away) on May 11, 2024. As soon as they arrived, plainclothes officers from the Qianjin Police Department in Chaoyang City rushed in. They confiscated Mr. Lan’s printers, computers, and 320,000 yuan in cash, as well as 120,000 yuan in cash from the couple. Hours later, the police escorted Mr. He back to his home in Chaoyang City and seized another 91,000 yuan in cash, the keys to his home, car keys, and other belongings.
While they took Mr. Lan and his wife, Ms. Hu Xiuli, to Chaoyang on the afternoon of May 11, the police kept his hands tied up. One officer hit his head and face until blood came out of his mouth. They wiped off the blood to cover up the beating.
The fifth defendant, Mr. Tian Pengfei, was also arrested on May 11, 2024, when he was getting ready to take his five-year-old son to kindergarten. Mr. Tian doesn’t practice Falun Gong himself, but he supports his parents, Mr. Tian Guoyou and Ms. Sun Xiaomei, in the practice. His case wasn’t related to those of the above-mentioned four practitioners, but the police had him prosecuted together with them.
In order to collect information against Mr. Tian, the police searched his computer shop and his parents’ home but didn’t find any Falun Gong-related materials. They used his late mother-in-law’s Falun Gong books, found at his brother-in-law’s home, as prosecution evidence against him.
The five defendants were issued formal arrest warrants by the Shuangta District Procuratorate in mid-June 2024. The prosecutor indicted them around mid-September 2024 and forwarded their cases to the Shuangta District Court.
The five defendants appeared in court on December 2, 18, and 23, 2024. The court informed the defendants’ lawyers on January 8, 2025, that the prosecutor had renewed the indictment after receiving new evidence. A fourth hearing was held two weeks later on January 22, 2025.
During the four hearings, the prosecutor accused the practitioners of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” but failed to produce evidence to prove the claim. The defense lawyers entered not guilty pleas for their clients and refuted the prosecution evidence.
On April 23, 2025, the court informed the practitioners’ families to pick up their guilty verdicts, only to tell them moments later that their case had been put on hold. The judge claimed that Ms. Hu was found to have gone into hiding, and that the prosecutor had collected even more evidence against them. After more than six months there is still no update from the court, and the practitioners remain detained.
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