Belated News: 67-Year-Old Retired Shandong Physician Gets Four Years for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 67-year-old retired physician in Jinan City, Shandong Province, was sentenced to four years on July 10, 2024, for his faith in Falun Gong, Minghui.org learned recently.

The wrongful conviction of Dr. Zhang Shuguang stemmed from his arrest on August 30, 2023. When someone knocked on his door after 8 a.m. that day, he opened it to a police officer who pushed his way in, took out a piece of paper from his bag, and put it in Dr. Zhang’s hand.

He started to read the paper, which began “Shizhong District Police Department and Dougou Police Station...” But before he could finish, at least 15 more agents, only three in uniform and all with video recorders, broke in and started raiding his home. Several of them cuffed Dr. Zhang behind his back and held him down on the floor when he tried to them.

The police confiscated all of Dr. Zhang’s Falun Gong books, informational materials, and picture of Falun Gong’s founder. They also seized four printers, one desktop computer, two laptops, one cell phone, and over 22,000 yuan in cash. They wanted to impound Dr. Zhang’s car but were unable to find the car key.

After ransacking his place for over seven hours, the police took Dr. Zhang and the confiscated items to the Dougou Police Station at 3 p.m.. While he was being interrogated, Dr. Zhang learned that some of the arresting officers were from the Wangsheren Police Station.

Dr. Zhang was shown a picture of a Falun Gong brochure that the Ronghuiyuan Residential Community had allegedly turned in to the Dougou Police Station. The police accused him of distributing the brochure there because they found his fingerprints on it (he’d been detained in the Wangsheren Police Station for seven days after a prior arrest on December 29, 2015, and forced to give his fingerprints at that time).

Having never even heard of the Ronghuiyuan Residential Community, Dr. Zhang denied distributing Falun Gong materials there. He suspected the police were trying to frame him. On the night of August 31, 2023, he was transferred to the Jinan City Detention Center.

Officers Wei Zhonggang and Dou Yuanming from the Dougou Police Station interrogated Dr. Zhang in the detention center after 3 p.m. on September 1 and again at 10 a.m. the next day. They submitted his case to the Shizhong District Procuratorate. Two prosecutors deposed Dr. Zhang on September 19, 2023. They insisted that the 22,000 yuan in cash the police had confiscated from him was intended to be used to produce Falun Gong informational materials when, in fact, it was not.

When Dr. Zhang was released on bail on September 26, 2023, the Wangsheren Police Station was assigned to monitor him. He was arrested again on March 26, 2024, after the police discovered via a phone tap that he was producing Falun Gong informational materials. They took him to the Jinan City Second Detention Center.

The Zhangqiu District Court sentenced Dr. Zhang to four years on July 10, 2024. He was recently admitted to the Shandong Province Prison.