(Minghui.org) Four Falun Gong practitioners were tried on March 22, 2018 for distributing materials which exposed the Chinese communist regime's persecution of their spiritual faith.

Mr. Fu Wende, 68, Ms. Song Nanyu, 67, and Mr. Liao Jianfu, 62, are residents of Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province. Mr. Zhou Fuming is a resident of Huaping County, Yunnan Province. The four practitioners were working together to distribute Falun Gong informational materials in Huaping County, Yunnan Province on May 12, 2016. They were all arrested months later.

Ms. Song and Mr. Fu were arrested on October 11, 2016. Mr. Liao was arrested the following day.

Sichuan Province seniors Ms. Song and Mr. Liao were released on bail on October 25, 2016. Mr. Fu was released on November 7, 2016.

It is unclear when Yunnan Province resident Mr. Zhou was arrested. He was released on bail on September 9, 2016.

The Huaping County police submitted the four cases to the Huaping County Procuratorate on July 24, 2017. The procuratorate returned the case to the police twice, on September 7 and November 6, 2017. Their cases were then forwarded to its supervising agency, the Yulong County Procuratorate, on December 4, 2017.

The Yulong County Procuratorate file indictments against the practitioners, who received formal notice from Yulong County Court on January 29, 2018.

The Yulong County Court tried the seniors on March 22, 2018. The hearing was held in Huaping County Courthouse. Only the four family members were allowed inside the building.

Judge He Fengsheng repeatedly interrupted the practitioners as they testified in their own defense.

Related article in Chinese: 四川攀枝花70岁宋南瑜面临非法庭审