(Minghui.org) A 75-year-old veteran in Chongqing was indicted on June 23, 2020, and is now facing trial at the Nanchuan District Court for speaking up for his faith in Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
According to a staff member from the Nanchuan District Procuratorate, the 610 Office, an extralegal agency created by the central Communist Party leadership specifically to persecute Falun Gong, has issued an order to have Mr. Cheng Defu jailed.
Mr. Cheng took up Falun Gong in 1998, and he credits the practice for curing his rheumatoid arthritis, pneumonia, and other injuries in his neck, back and brain sustained during a car accident.
In December 2019, Mr. Cheng delivered a set of documents to his neighborhood committee, including a notice from the Chinese publication bureau that lifted the ban on Falun Gong books, the Chinese law about citizens’ basic rights and freedom of belief, as well as other documents that showed the illegality of the persecution of Falun Gong. He hoped that the committee staff would understand Falun Gong and stop participating in the persecution.
On March 5, 2020, two 610 Office agents, Zheng Qinghong and Sun, visited Mr. Cheng and asked if he had any Falun Gong informational materials for them to read.
Mr. Cheng replied that he had given all his materials to the neighborhood committee but that he could get back some for them. Zheng and Sun agreed that they would go back a few days later to get the materials.
When Mr. Cheng went to the neighborhood committee to get the documents the next day and tried to explain in details what the documents were about, the staff members there reported him to the police.
Officers arrested Mr. Cheng at home and confiscated many of his personal items on March 7. Mr. Cheng was interrogated for more than ten hours, and officers knocked out two of his teeth.
Mr. Cheng was later released after the local detention center refused to admit him due to his poor health.
The police later forced two other local practitioners to provide fabricated accounts, accusing Mr. Cheng of distributing Falun Gong materials. The documents he delivered to the neighborhood committee were also included as evidence used to charge him.
Related report:
75-Year-Old Veteran Faces Prosecution Over Fabricated Evidence
