(Minghui.org) Two Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, residents were sentenced to prison on March 31, 2025, for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Jin Xiaofeng, 65, was sentenced to three years and fined 10,000 yuan. Ms. Zhao Guiping, 71, received five years and a 30,000-yuan fine. Judges Zhang Jutao, Zhu Lina, and Li Ping, as well as clerk Zhang Xiaotong, signed the verdicts.
Mr. Jin Xiaofeng
Ms. Zhao Guiping
Mr. Jin and Ms. Zhao were talking outside on July 13, 2024, when five plainclothes officers swarmed the pair and said they had been following Mr. Jin for three months. Without producing any IDs or search warrant, they searched Mr. Jin’s car and confiscated over 500 Falun Gong flyers. The police also raided Mr. Jin’s home later that day and seized a computer and a printer.
On the way to raid Mr. Jin’s home, an officer said to him, “People like you often die in custody, and your children are implicated.”
Mr. Jin was taken to the Quanyuan Police Station, where the police promised to release him in three days if he answered all their questions. He refused to comply and demanded legal representation.
Prosecutor Wang Yu of the Dadong District Procuratorate indicted both practitioners on December 10, 2024. They appeared in the Dadong District Court on February 20, 2025.
Mr. Jin and Ms. Zhao’s respective lawyers and Mr. Jin’s family defender (his daughter, alias Mei) demanded their acquittal during their hearing. The two practitioners also testified in their own defense. Mei attested to Falun Gong’s amazing power. She said that her father Mr. Jin used to be a selfish person who didn’t care about anyone but himself. He often fought with his family and only focused on his own needs. His family was on the verge of collapse. After practicing Falun Gong, he quit his bad habits and started taking care of his sick parents-in-law. He no longer refused to help his friends and relatives when they needed it. He also became less interested in personal gain and no longer got angry when he received defective products when he shopped online.
Presiding judge Zhang and prosecutor Wang Yu kept interrupting the lawyers and the practitioners during the trial.
Wang accused Mr. Jin and Ms. Zhao of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the communist regime to frame Falun Gong practitioners. The defense pointed out that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong or labels it a cult. Mei also presented a joint notice issued by the General Office of the CCP Central Committee, the General Office of the State Council, and the Ministry of Public Security on April 9, 2000, titled, “Notice of the Ministry of Public Security on Certain Issues Concerning the Identification and Suppression of Cult Organizations.” The notice listed 14 cult organizations but Falun Gong was not on it.
Judge Zhang declined to accept the notice as evidence to support the defendants’ innocence and yelled, “How can this be used as evidence?”
Judge Zhang adjourned the hearing after four hours. He sentenced both practitioners on March 31, 2025. Both Mr. Jin and Ms. Zhao are in declining health due to the mental pressure from the persecution.
Prior to this latest incident, Ms. Zhao was given two years in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in 2001 and sentenced to one year by the same Dadong District Court on May 16, 2016.
Related Reports:
Two Liaoning Residents Stand Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
Liaoning Man Facing Trial for His Faith that Turned Him into a Much Better Person
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