College Teacher Gets Two Years for Talking to Teenagers about Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A college teacher was recently sentenced to two years after being reported by two middle school students for talking to them about Falun Gong. The authorities barred Ms. Chen Ping’s family from visiting her and threatened to arrest her lawyer if they hired a lawyer for her.

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

Ms. Chen, a teacher of West China Normal University in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, was arrested on July 26, 2020, after being reported by the two students. More than ten officers interrogated her during the 38-hour-long detention. She was starved and also forced to wear a strait jacket. She was released the next evening and put on house arrest.

Six months later, the police submitted Ms. Chen’s case to the Shunqing District Procuratorate. She wrote letters to officials handling her case, urging them not to participate in the persecution. But the officials kept trying to pressure her into pleading guilty. The prosecutor indicted Ms. Chen around late 2021 and moved her case to the Shunqing District Court.

Ms. Chen appeared in Shunqing District Court on April 21, 2022. Most of the evidence submitted by the police was fabricated, including forged witness signatures.

Although the court claimed that it was having an “open trial,” Ms. Chen’s sister, brother, and sister-in-law were all prohibited from attending it. Only her husband and parents were allowed into the courtroom. The gallery was filled with police officers, residential committee staff members, and security officers from Ms. Chen’s college. The heavy police force was stationed outside of the courthouse, claiming to prevent local practitioners from rallying there.

A residential committee staff member called Ms. Chen on March 17, 2023, and asked her to go to their office. She went there, only to see court officials who announced her sentence. She has been taken into custody since.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Li Yang (李旸), judge of Shunqing District Court: [phone]Chen Qin (陈琴), prosecutor of Shunqing District Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]Qing Xing (卿星), director of 610 Office: [phone]