(Minghui.org) It was recently confirmed by Minghui.org that a Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province resident was sentenced on June 3, 2021 to five years in prison and fined 50,000 yuan for his faith in Falun Gong. About one and half years later, Mr. Gao Hongbin’s wife, Ms. Wang Luhua, and another Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Zhang Lihua, were sentenced to four years and three years and four months, respectively.
The three practitioners were arrested on November 22, 2020. Mr. Gao was taken to a local detention center in the evening. The two women were released at around 3 a.m. after they failed the required physical examination.
The police raided the couple’s home, confiscating their bank cards and deposit slips, over 40,000 yuan in cash, three computers, two cellphones, two Falun Gong books, and private car. Ms. Zhang had her laptop, cellphone, two Falun Gong books, and photo of Falun Gong’s founder confiscated. Although the police returned Ms. Wang’s bank cards and deposit slips the next day, they used 40,000 yuan of the confiscated cash as bail bonds for both her and Ms. Zhang (20,000 yuan for each person).
The Ranghulu District Court sentenced Mr. Gao on June 3, 2021 without informing his family. Only when his family went to the police station in August 2021 to seek the return of the confiscated car, did they find out about Mr. Gao’s sentencing. They were barred from visiting him. According to an insider, Mr. Gao is currently held in Hulan Prison. He has suffered declined vision and has trouble walking as a result of the torture in custody.
After Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang’s one-year bail expired, the police put them under residential surveillance. Both practitioners were deceived by the police into going to the police station to pick up their bail on May 19, 2022 and arrested. The police soon submitted their cases to the Ranghulu District Procuratorate and prosecutor Feng Guang indicted them.
The Ranghulu District Court scheduled a joint hearing for July 1, 2022 to try Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang. They was denied entry to the courthouse on the court date, however, because they didn’t know they were required to do COVID tests. They were then taken to a local hospital to have the tests done, before being taken to the Daqing City No. 2 Detention Center, which declined to accept them because the COVID test results were not yet available. The police then took the practitioners to another hospital for physical examinations and both were found to have some health issues. The police nonetheless took them back to the detention center, which again refused to accept them due to their health conditions. The police eventually allowed them to go home at around midnight.
The court held two hearings, first on July 22 and then on October 25, 2022, before announcing their verdicts on December 30, 2022. Ms. Wang was sentenced to four years with a 40,000-yuan fine. Ms. Zhang received three years and four months with a 30,000-yuan fine. Both of them appealed with the Daqing City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold their original verdicts on April 11, 2023. They are now preparing to submit motions to reconsider their case.
The police made another attempt to take Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang to the Daqing City Detention Center on March 26, 2023. They were again denied admission due to their health conditions and returned home on the same day. The judge called them on April 12, 2023 and urged them to pay the court fine. As they refused to acknowledge the verdicts, the judge gave orders to freeze their bank accounts on April 19.
Perpetrators’ information:
Wang Haiyan (王海燕), judge of Daqing City Intermediate Court: +86-459-6829411Jiang Yunfeng (姜云丰), presiding judge of Daqing City Intermediate CourtXue Qiang (薛强), presiding judge of Ranghulu District CourtLeng Zhiqiang (冷志强), judge of Ranghulu District CourtZhang Liguo (张立国), chief of Tieren Police Station: +86-18645969430
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
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