(Minghui.org) Seven Falun Gong practitioners in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province were sentenced to terms ranging from one to six years and fined between 2,000 and 20,000 yuan in April 2021. Their families recently received the court’s notice to collect fines, but they never received the verdicts of their prison terms.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Police officers smashed a window and scaled the fence to break into the home of Mr. Liu Wenchang and his wife Ms. Wang Shuren at around 6 p.m. on November 27, 2020. The couple and their five guests, Ms. Feng Xiumei, Ms. Meng Qiuyan, Ms. Bai Lixia, Ms. Liu Qiu and Ms. Liu Shuying, were arrested.
In the evening, all seven Falun Gong practitioners’ families went to the Xingfuxiang Police Station and demanded their release. Several of the practitioners’ children said their mothers’ health had improved after taking up Falun Gong and that they didn’t do anything wrong in upholding their faith.
The police refused to release the practitioners and ordered them to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong. The village Party secretary, Liu Ming, told Ms. Wang's son to kneel in front of her and beg her to sign the statement. But Ms. Wang didn’t comply. Later in the evening, the six female practitioners were transferred to the Harbin City No. 2 Detention Center, and Mr. Liu was taken to the Shuangcheng District Detention Center.
The next day, the police asked the husbands of the five guests, mostly in their 70s, to sign their arrest warrants, which were dated December 8, one day after the actual arrests.
The practitioners’ families found the village secretary Liu Ming and sought his help to rescue their loved ones. Liu instead asked each family to turn in 50,000 yuan for him to bribe the police officers in charge of the case.
The seven practitioners were tried by the Daoli District Court on April 2, 2021, through a video conference. The hearing lasted only half an hour.
When the practitioners’ families called the judge two weeks later, the judge told them that Ms. Wang was sentenced to six years with a 20,000-yuan fine and Mr. Liu was given three years with a 10,000-yuan fine. The other five practitioners were all sentenced to one year with a 2,000-yuan fine.
It’s reported that Mr. Liu is having episodes of epilepsy, which was healed years ago after he took up Falun Gong but recurred due to the poor living conditions in the detention center. Now his family is very worried about his situation.
Related report:
Seven Elderly Heilongjiang Residents Detained for Their Faith, Families in Distress
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
