Shandong Man Sentenced to Seven Years for His Faith, Appeal Rejected

(Minghui.org) A 55-year-old Dezhou City, Shandong Province resident was sentenced to seven years for practicing Falun Gong. The local higher court ordered a retrial after Mr. Mo Xinzhong’s first appeal, but the trial court still issued the same verdict after the retrial. He appealed again, only to be rejected the second time around.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Mo Xinzhong

Arrest

Mr. Mo and his wife were arrested at their daughter’s bakery on the evening of February 9, 2020, after the police found Mr. Mo’s information while searching another practitioner’s home earlier. His two computers, three printers and over 20,000 yuan in cash were confiscated.

The police suspected that Mr. Mo had worked with other practitioners to travel from his residence in Xiajin County (under the jurisdiction of Dezhou City) to the nearby Gaotang County (under the jurisdiction of Liaocheng City), about 25 miles away, to put up informational materials about Falun Gong.

After two days at the Jiangdian Police Station, Mr. Mo was taken to the Gaotang County Police Department for interrogation. He was released on bail on February 12.

Terrified by the raid and arrest, Mr. Mo’s wife fell ill and was hospitalized.

On February 2, 2021, ten days before Mr. Mo’s one-year bail condition expired, an officer of the Gaotang County Domestic Security Office called him and summoned him to the police department on the next day.

When Mr. Mo didn’t comply, the police from Gaotang came to his home at 7 a.m. on May 30. They turned off his power supply from outside and arrested him when he came out to check the situation. He has been held at the Gaotang County Detention Center since.

Mr. Mo’s lawyer visited him several times. All of their conversations were closely monitored by a guard sitting next to Mr. Mo. Whenever the lawyer mentioned the words “not guilty,” the guard would stand up and warn the lawyer not to talk about the defense argument.

Sentenced to Seven Years

The Gaotang County Domestic Security Office later submitted Mr. Mo’s case to the Dong’e County Procuratorate, which, together with Dong’e County Court, were designated to handle Falun Gong cases in the counties in Liaocheng City.

A prosecutor went to see Mr. Mo in the detention center and promised to give him a lighter sentence of four years if he pleaded guilty, or he would be given seven years or more. He said he’d plead not guilty.

His lawyer thus submitted a legal opinion not to indict him, but prosecutor Zhang Min still did so and forwarded his case to the Dong’e County Court.

Judge Rong Chuigong contacted Mr. Mo’s lawyer and said that he received a letter from Mr. Mo’s family, who urged him not to sentence him. The lawyer added that the persecution didn’t have any legal basis. The judge affirmed his position to follow the persecution policy and said that Mr. Mo had violated the law if the government said so.

The Dong’e County Court held the first hearing of Mr. Mo’s case on November 23, 2021. Except for Mr. Mo, who was connected through a video conference at the detention center, the judge, prosecutor and lawyer attended the session in the courthouse.

The lawyer entered a not guilty plea for Mr. Mo. He argued that the police had committed several violations of legal procedure while handling his case, which would render the evidence submitted by them inadmissible.

First of all, the police failed to show a search warrant before ransacking Mr. Mo’s home on the evening of February 9. Only after holding him at the police station overnight did they issue a detention certificate, which didn’t have a specific date of the arrest.

What’s more unacceptable was that the police fabricated Mr. Mo’s deposition and forced him to sign it, without allowing him to read it first.

In addition, the police listed the paper currency confiscated from Mr. Mo’s home as Falun Gong flyers, because it had information about Falun Gong printed on it. The over 20,000-yuan cash confiscated from Mr. Mo, including bills of one yuan and ten yuan, were counted as 2,700 copies of Falun Gong flyers.

Prosecutor Zhang Min kept ordering Mr. Mo to plead guilty and admit that he printed the paper currency himself. Zhang said that if he had a good attitude, they would sentence him to five years, otherwise seven years.

When Mr. Mo retorted that he didn’t violate any law in practicing Falun Gong, judge Rong interrupted him, accused him of having a bad attitude and indicated that he would sentence him to seven years. Rong also ordered Mr. Mo to plead guilty, leaving him with almost no opportunity to defend himself during the hearing.

By the end of the hearing, the judge allowed Mr. Mo’s family, who attended the hearing in person, to take a look at him through the video. He warned the family to be prepared for a heavy sentence.

Four days after Mr. Mo’s second hearing on December 9, the lawyer received his verdict, dated December 10, that Mr. Mo was sentenced to seven years and fined 20,000 yuan. Mr. Mo appealed with the Liaocheng City Intermediate Court.

Appeal Rejected after a Retrial

In late February 2022, Mr. Mo’s family received a letter from the intermediate court, which decided to reverse the lower court’s verdict and ordered a retrial.

After receiving the intermediate court’s decision, judge Rong filed a complaint against Mr. Mo’s lawyer with the local justice bureau, which resulted in an investigation of the lawyer. The justice bureau questioned the lawyer whether he gave their phone numbers to overseas Falun Gong practitioners, as they kept getting calls from them, who urged them to release Mr. Mo.

Zhang Wei, the vice president of the Dong’e County Court, also said to Mr. Mo’s lawyer, “The reason the higher court ordered a retrial was because they had some issues with the members of the trial court. You shouldn’t think that the result would be changed at all.”

During Mr. Mo’s retrial on June 17, the court bailiffs kept his family from entering the courthouse initially. They relented upon the lawyer’s strong protest. As soon as the family sat down in the gallery, several armed bailiffs came over and stood next to them.

This time, the presiding judge was changed to Zhao Liyan and Zhang Min remained the prosecutor. Mr. Mo was still connected through a video conference.

Similar to judge Rong, the first question judge Zhao asked Mr. Mo was whether he would plead guilty. After Mr. Mo replied that he didn’t break any law, Zhao said to him, “I’m asking you again. I hope you can seize this opportunity.” Mr. Mo still replied to her, “I won't plead guilty. I didn’t break any law.”

After moments of silence, Zhao announced to adjourn the hearing for ten minutes. She then walked out of the courtroom with prosecutor Zhang and his assistant Shen Jian.

When they came back, Zhao said to Mr. Mo that his attitude wasn’t good and that she had decided to sentence him to seven years. After she announced the verdict, she then asked Mr. Mo where he got his Falun Gong books and the paper currency with information about Falun Gong printed on it.

Mr. Mo refused to answer her question. He also denied the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization.” Both the judge and prosecutor frequently interrupted him.

The judge issued a formal seven-year verdict against Mr. Mo on August 2. He appealed with the Liaocheng City Intermediate Court, which has ruled to uphold the verdict this time.

The Family’s Plight

Mr. Mo had a daughter and a son. On July 29, 1996, his son, then 7, accidentally drowned in the river. As the water was very deep, it took local villagers several hours to find his body.

The passing of their son dealt Mr. Mo and his wife a huge blow. Unable to cope with the deep grief, they often cried and lost hope for life. Later, with the encouragement from their family, they decided to have another baby. But because his wife had undergone a sterilization procedure, she tried to do the tubal ligation reversal surgery to conceive again, which failed after several attempts.

The surgery caused much damage to his wife’s health and also left the couple with huge debt. Under tremendous pressure, Mr. Mo’s wife suffered a mental breakdown and often attempted to commit suicide.

Mr. Mo had to take his wife to the Liaocheng City Psychiatric Hospital, only to take her home soon after, as the doctor often shocked her with electric batons.

In 1997, upon learning about Falun Gong’s health benefits, Mr. Mo’s wife took up the practice. She stopped the medication and recovered in a month. A year later, Mr. Mo also joined her and happiness returned to the family again.

Mr. Mo’s wife used to have a tense relationship with her mother-in-law. But practicing Falun Gong changed her into a better person and she began to treat her mother-in-law well.

Mr. Mo’s daughter recalled, “Before my parents took up Falun Gong, our family lived a miserable life. If it were not for Falun Gong, my mother would have died a long time ago and I wouldn’t have had a complete family. This is the reason why I support them in practicing Falun Gong despite the persecution.”

“Only because my father lives by Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and tries to be a good person, he is now sentenced to seven years. He didn’t do anything wrong. His right to practice his faith should have been protected by the law.”

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Rong Chuigong (荣垂功), presiding judge of Dong’e County Court: [phone]Zhao Liyan (赵丽艳), judge of Dong’e County CourtZhang Min (张敏), prosecutor at Dong’e County ProcuratorateYue Zong’en (岳宗恩), head of Gaotang County Police Department: [phone]Zhao Jinghai (赵景海), head of Gaotang County Domestic Security Office: [phone], [phone], [phone]Hua Xinggang (华兴刚), officer of Gaotang County Domestic Security Office: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)