(Minghui.org) Nine Weihai City, Shandong Province, residents, all of them employees of the local Wendeng City Tapestry Factory, stood trial on August 24, 2023 for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The hearing was held at the Rongcheng City Court. The presiding judge kept interrupting and threatening the practitioners as they testified in their own defense. Other details of the hearing remain to be investigated.
The nine practitioners include Ms. Li Shuhong and Ms. Tian Lisha, wife and sister of the factory founder, Mr. Tian Shihong, who had been persecuted to death at the age of 64 in November 2019 for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Li and their daughter took over the business after Mr. Tian’s passing, with the former serving as the legal representative (every business in China is required to appoint a legal representative to act on behalf of the company) and the latter being the operations manager.
Over 200 officers were dispatched to raid the factory on July 20, 2022. Many structures in the garden-like factory were vandalized. The police also put up banners slandering Falun Gong everywhere in the factory. Each worker was interrogated by two officers. Some female workers cried in fear.
Eleven employees were arrested that day, including Ms. Li, her daughter Ms. Tian Tian, her sister-in-law Ms. Tian Lisha, factory accountant Ms. Liu Mingming, Ms. Qu Aiping, Mr. Zhang Yingming, Ms. Xu Changqing, Mr. Cong Xu, Ms. Lian Qingling, Mr. Jiang Changmin, and Mei (alias).
Mei was released after 12 hours, and Ms. Tian Tian was freed after 48 hours. It is unclear whether Mei and Ms. Tian practiced Falun Gong, but the other nine arrested employees all did. Most of the practitioners also had their residences ransacked and their Falun Gong items, computers, and printers confiscated.
While the police allowed Ms. Tian to keep running the factory after her release, they stayed there for at least six days, during which time they questioned workers at will and severely disrupted the business' operation. Because accountant Ms. Liu’s computer was confiscated, Ms. Tian was unable to pay her workers (who also lived on the factory campus) or deposit money into their meal accounts. She had to record everyone’s meal purchase in the factory cafeteria for them to reimburse later.
Ms. Tian Lisha, Ms. Li, Ms. Qu, and Mr. Zhang were put under criminal detention and had their arrests approved on August 28, 2022. Ms. Tian, Ms. Li, and Ms. Qu are currently being held at the Wendeng Detention Center. Mr. Zhang is being detained at the Weihai Detention Center.
The other five practitioners were released on August 29 on bail and had their bail conditions approved on November 29, 2022.
The Rongcheng City Procuratorate indicted the nine practitioners on December 28, 2022. They appeared in Rongcheng City Court on August 24, 2023. Ms. Tian refuted the allegations against her, and other practitioners also testified in their own defense. The presiding judge kept interrupting and threatening them.
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