(Minghui.org) Mr. Chen Fanghua, 71, from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was sentenced to three and a half years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Chen just stepped out of the door on the morning of July 18, 2024, when several plainclothes officers from the Huapingxincun Police Station seized him and took him inside to raid his home. They confiscated two of his Falun Gong books. Neither of them showed their IDs.
After 15 days of detention at a lockup, Mr. Chen was moved to the Lanzhou City First Detention Center. The Chengguan District Court held a hearing on March 21, 2025, without notifying his family. The court-appointed lawyer called his loved ones. They rushed to the courthouse but were barred from attending the trial.
The lawyer notified the family on June 27, 2025 that Mr. Chen was sentenced to three and a half years. When his family asked to see the verdict the lawyer said he did not have one to show them. He also told them that Mr. Chen was in the process of filing an appeal.
Mr. Chen hasn’t been allowed to see his family since his arrest. His latest persecution was preceded by multiple arrests over the years for his faith. While still living in Baiyin City in the same province, he was sentenced to three years in 2008 and one year and two months in 2017.
After Mr. Chen moved to Lanzhou with his daughter’s family, the Baiyin authorities harassed him there. Officer Yuan Wenye from the Pingchuan District Police Department, as well as director Bai Yong and deputy director Zhu Yuqin from the Pingchuan District Comprehensive Management Office, traveled to Lanzhou and ordered Mr. Chen, his daughter, her husband and father-in-law, to sign statements promising to not practice or support Falun Gong.
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