Married Couple Sentenced to One Year in Prison

(Minghui.org) A married couple in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province were each sentenced to one year in prison because the wife practices Falun Gong. Although the husband doesn’t practice, he was forced by the authorities to say that he was a Falun Gong practitioner.

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

When Ms. Chen Hua, 64, accompanied by her husband, Mr. Hao Zhiqiang, who is 65 and a former president of the Lingyuan City Steel Company, went out to get her hair done on June 1, 2022, the police broke into their home and confiscated Ms. Chen’s Falun Gong books, a photo of Falun Gong’s founder, her computer, and cellphone. 

Although Mr. Hao doesn’t practice Falun Gong, he was arrested with his wife on their way back home. The police first held the couple in a hotel for “residential surveillance” and then transferred them to the Kazuo County Detention Center on criminal detention. Ms. Chen was later taken to the Chaoyang City Women’s Detention Center.

When the couple asked the police the reason for their arrest, the police said to them, “You don’t know what you did?” Another officer said, “We’ve monitored you for over ten days. Don’t you know that?”

The Kazuo County Procuratorate approved the couple’s arrest in early July 2022. Unable to find anything to charge the couple with, Zhang Feng, the political instructor of the Kazuo County Police Department, ordered his subordinates to go to the couple’s previous residence in Lingyuan City to look for information that might incriminate them. 

Ms. Chen and Mr. Hao were later sentenced to one year by the Kazuo County Court, with the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners. Although Mr. Hao emphasized that he didn’t practice Falun Gong, the authorities still forced him to state that he was a practitioner and write a statement to “renounce” Falun Gong. He was allowed to serve time outside of prison. Ms. Chen served time at the Chaoyang City Women’s Detention Center and was released in June 2023 after her term expired.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Wang Hui (王辉), director, Kazuo County Police Department: [phone]Zhou Shijie (周世杰), director, Kazuo County Domestic Security Office: [phone]Zhao Shenglong (赵升龙), secretary, Kazuo County Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone]Li Boming (李柏明), president, Kazuo County ProcuratorateDong Huanming (董焕明), president, Kazuo County Court: [phone], [phone]

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