36-year-old Man Tried for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 36-year-old Xingtai City, Hebei Province resident stood trial on February 23, 2023 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Zhao Can was arrested at work on July 15, 2021. The police raided his home without showing their IDs or a search warrant. The police said that they would release him on July 30, but when his family went to the Ningjin County Detention Center on that day to pick him up, the police handed them the notice to change Mr. Zhao’s 15-day administrative detention to extended criminal detention.

Mr. Zhao’s family received a notice from the Ningjin County Court in late September 2022 that he was scheduled to appear in court on October 10. The family and lawyer went to the court on time, only to be told by the judge that the hearing had been canceled and would be rescheduled within three months.

The family said they were very disappointed by the change. As they hadn’t been allowed to visit Mr. Zhao since his arrest a year ago, they are very worried about him. 

The court held a hearing of Mr. Zhao’s case on February 23, 2023. By then, he had been detained for one year and seven months. 

Mr. Zhao recounted that after he was taken to the police station, several officers surrounded him, intimidated him and ordered him to renounce Falun Gong. After he was transferred to the detention center, a guard ordered the inmates to beat him. He was starved, deprived of sleep and denied restroom use. The inmate also hit his head with a shoe, slapped him in the face, and force-fed him cold water, which almost suffocated him.

During the first few months of Mr. Zhao’s detention, the guards kept calling his family, asking them to make deposit for him. But Mr. Zhao never saw any money in his account or received the clothes his family sent him.

After the hearing resumed following the lunch break, the judge asked Mr. Zhao whether he pleaded guilty. He maintained that he was innocent. When he asked the judge which law he allegedly violated, the judge lowered his head and remained silent.

Moments later, the judge asked Mr. Zhao, “You have so many flash-drives. Would you plead guilty if I sentence you to four years and six months?” 

At the request of Mr. Zhao’s lawyer, the judge exhibited the flash-drives in court. The judge appeared to be surprised to see some electronic books in the flash drives. But it’s not clear what the books were about.

The judge went on to say that the government has long decided to outlaw Falun Gong. But he stopped short at the lawyer’s question about which law stated so.

The judge claimed that he would announce a verdict in 15 days. A month has passed and he is yet to rule in the case. 

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Li Fucong (李福聪), presiding judge of Ningjin County Court: [phone]Yuan Xiangqun (袁香群), president of Ningjin County Court: [phone], [phone]Dong Qing (董青), prosecutor of Ningjin County Procuratorate: [phone]

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