(Minghui.org) The Maonan District Procuratorate in Maoming City, Guangdong Province, on June 8, 2023 charged a local Falun Gong practitioner with violating Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which states that anyone using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Prosecutor Cai Linhui forwarded Mr. Li Jun’s case to the Maonan District Court the next day.

No enacted law in China has ever criminalized Falun Gong or labeled it as a cult. However, China’s procuratorates and courts have been citing Article 300 as a “legal basis” in their attempts to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners since the communist regime started persecuting Falun Gong, a spiritual cultivation system, in July 1999.

Mr. Li, 72, was arrested on February 14, 2023, by more than ten black-clad officers from the Dianbai District Police Department. They confiscated from his home over 30 Falun Gong books, a computer, and 200 1-yuan paper currency printed with information about Falun Gong (as a way to overcome the information censorship in China). For several days after Mr. Li’s arrest, the police kept coming to his home and taking photos. His family was terrified.

The police said they targeted Mr. Li to prevent him from raising awareness of the persecution of Falun Gong ahead of the upcoming two political meetings held in March every year. 

Mr. Li’s three daughters frequented the police station to seek his release. The police said the only condition for his release was that he sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. As Mr. Li refused to do so, the police soon put him in criminal detention and refused to release him after the aforementioned annual meetings were over.

The Dianbai District Procuratorate approved Mr. Li’s arrest on March 24, 2023 and forwarded the case to the Maonan District Procuratorate on May 24. The latter procuratorate proceeded to indict Mr. Li on June 8. He is now awaiting trial at the Dianbai District Detention Center.

Mr. Li’s wife often cried over his arrest and couldn’t understand why such a good person like her husband had to be persecuted for his faith. “He is such a loving husband,” she said. 

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72-year-old Man Faces Prosecution for His Faith