Having Been Sentenced 20 Years Ago in His 20s, Doctor of Chinese Medicine Jailed Again for His Faith in Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 46-year-old doctor of Chinese medicine in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, was recently sentenced to three years and eight months for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. This is the second time that Mr. Shen Guosheng has been sentenced, following another five-year term 20 years ago.

Zhang Xiapeng, an agent of the Taiyuan City 610 Office, began to harass Mr. Shen since late 2021 and attempted to force him to renounce Falun Gong. When Mr. Shen refused to comply, Zhang once stayed at his home for hours. Mr. Shen’s ailing mother, who was near 80 years old and living with him, was unable to stand the harassment and drove Zhang away.

Several plainclothes officers broke into Mr. Shen’s home again on December 29, 2021 and forced his mother to tell them where he was. After confirming that he was working at the community clinic, the police went there and arrested him. They then brought Mr. Shen back home and searched his place. His cellphone was taken and no confiscation list was given to him. 

The police claimed that they arrested Mr. Shen because someone saw him placing things into people’s bicycle baskets a year ago. 

Mr. Shen was taken to the Taiyuan City No. 3 Detention Center on the next day on criminal detention. His arrest was soon approved by Yuan Hongjuan of the Yingze District Procuratorate. 

Mr. Shen was transferred to the Taiyuan City No. 2 Detention Center in February 2022. He was indicted in the April. Judge He Linhai of the Yingze District Court was assigned to handle his case.

The court held a virtual hearing of Mr. Shen’s case on July 8. The judge prohibited his family from attending the session, citing the pandemic as an excuse. Mr. Shen insisted that he didn’t violate any law in practicing Falun Gong. His two lawyers entered not guilty plea for him. 

Both judge He and prosecutor Yuan asked the lawyers, “Haven’t your local justice bureau provided training to you or had a meeting with you?” The lawyers weren’t deterred by the implied threat to have their local justice bureau pressure them to discipline them for representing Falun Gong. They said that it’s the judge and the prosecutor who broke the law in wrongfully prosecuting their client, and they wouldn’t back off even if the justice bureau tried to pressure them into dropping the case.

The judge held another virtual hearing of Mr. Shen’s case on September 8, before sentencing him to three years and eight months with a 5,000-yuan fine on December 12. He has appealed the verdict. 

Previous Five-year Sentence

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Shen has been sentenced for practicing Falun Gong. 

Since early 2002, the police and his manager at work kept harassing Mr. Shen, then 26, and tried to force him to give up Falun Gong. He refused to comply and was forced to quit his job. He rented an apartment with two other practitioners, Mr. Wang Zhiming and Mr. Luan Fusheng. The trio worked together to print informational materials about Falun Gong for distribution. 

After the police couldn’t find him, they kept harassing his family and sometimes broke into his family home in the middle of the night to see if he had come back. Even his relatives living in the nearby Hebei Province were harassed.

One local practitioner Mr. Kang Zhiguo was arrested on October 1, 2002 while distributing the materials, which led to the arrests of 64 practitioners including Mr. Shen. Over twenty of the arrested practitioners were sentenced to prison and several others were given labor camp terms. 

Five of the practitioners died as a result: Mr. Mao Yanping was beaten to death by police officer Li Jingfeng, Mr. Wang was tortured to death at the Wanbolin District Detention Center, Mr. Ding Lihong died of force feeding, Mr. Kang was tortured to death in Jinzhong Prison and although Mr. Luan endured the relentless torture in Jinzhong Prison, he passed away shortly after being released.

Mr. Shen was arrested on November 17, 2002. He was shocked with electric batons at the police station. The Wanbolin District Court sentenced him to five years in 2003. He appealed with the Taiyuan City Intermediate Court, but the judge ruled to uphold his original verdict.

While serving time at the Jinzhong Prison, Mr. Shen was monitored by the inmates around the clock and ordered to renounce Falun Gong. The inmates also beat him with wood planks and forced him to stand facing the wall for long hours. 

Mr. Shen was arrested again on December 14, 2015, for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime who ordered the persecution. His sister Ms. Shen Yanxia and his mother Ms. Gao Junlan were also taken to the police station.

The next day, both Mr. Shen and Ms. Shen were taken to the Taiyuan City Lockup for five days and Ms. Gao was released due to her advanced age.

Perpetrators’ information:

Zhang Jinzhong (张晋东), president of Yingze District ProcuratorateYuan Hongjuan (员红娟), prosecutor of Yingze District ProcuratorateWang Jinbin (王晋斌), president of Yingze District CourtHe Linhai (贺林海), judge of Yingze District Court: [phone]Zhang Hao (张皓), officer of Yingze District Police Station