Anshan City, Liaoning Province: Two Falun Gong Practitioners Convicted for Their Faith

(Minghui.org) Two Anshan City, Liaoning Province, residents were recently sentenced to prison for practicing Falun Gong. Both of them have appealed the verdicts.

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

Ms. Shi Yanying was arrested on January 19, 2021 while working at a senior center. A computer and printer were confiscated from her home. She was held at the Xiuyan Detention Center. The police continued to monitor Ms. Shi’s home after the raid and arrested two more practitioners, Mr. Bai Xuesong and Ms. Lou Yan, when they went to Ms. Shi’s home for a visit the next day. 

While Ms. Lou was later released, Mr. Bai was interrogated and beaten at the Fanrong Police Station. Deputy police chief Wu Chunsong restrained him in a metal chair and slapped him repeatedly in the face. When Wu became tired, he ordered another officer to continue beating Mr. Bai.

On January 21, an officer surnamed Zhang dragged Mr. Bai into the restroom and hit him on the head. Mr. Bai was then taken to the Anshan City No. 2 Detention Center. 

The Lishan District Procuratorate later approved Ms. Shi’s and Mr. Bai’s arrests. Both appeared at the Lishan District Court four times before being sentenced.

During their first hearing on December 27, 2021, Ms. Shi refused to plead guilty when pressed by prosecutor Zhang Yi. She also testified that none of the police officers were in uniform during her arrest, nor did they show their IDs or an arrest warrant. One officer promised to release her if she admitted that some of the Falun Gong materials were hers. She refused to acquiesce.

Ms. Shi’s lawyer demanded that the prosecutor exhibit the prosecution evidence in court, but the prosecutor insisted that the photos of the evidence included in the indictment were sufficient. When the lawyer raised the demand with the judge to examine the evidence in court, the judge agreed. 

After a brief adjournment, the prosecutor presented the evidence. The lawyer argued that the amount of materials shown was significantly less than that indicated in the indictment. He added that the China Administration of Press and Publication had lifted the ban on Falun Gong literature in 2011, and thus his client didn’t violate any law in having or distributing them. The judge didn’t respond to the lawyer and adjourned the session. 

For the next three hearings on January 7, August 19, and September 16, the practitioners’ three lawyers focused their argument about the police fabricating the practitioners’ signatures and testimonies in the case documents, as well as editing the interrogation videos. 

The judge sentenced Ms. Shi to three years and Mr. Bai to three and a half years on September 29.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Li Jijun (李继军), president, Lishan District Court: [phone]Liu Yin (刘音), judge, Lishan District Court: [phone]Zhang Yi (张毅), prosecutor, Lishan District Procuratorate: [phone]Wang Jianjun (王建军), secretary, Anshan City Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone], [phone], [phone]

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