(Minghui.org) The Minghui.org website has recently confirmed that two Wuhua County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, residents were sentenced to prison in November 2021 and February 2023 for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Chen Biaohong, 58, was arrested in June 2020 for distributing Falun Gong materials in Hengbei Town and Shuizhai Town, both under the jurisdiction of Wuhua County. While he was released soon after, he was seized by officers from the Wuhua County Police Department at home on March 18, 2021, and put in criminal detention the next day.
The Wuhua County Procuratorate approved Mr. Chen’s arrest on April 21, 2021. He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and fined 25,000 yuan by the Meixian District Court in Meizhou City on November 2, 2021. His term was set to end on September 17, 2023, but it remains to be confirmed whether he has been released.
Mr. Chen began to practice Falun Gong in 1998. This wasn’t the first time that he was sentenced since the persecution started. He was previously given three years with four years probation by the Wuhua County Court on May 16, 2001.
Since 2019, the Meixian District Procuratorate and Meixian District Court have been designated to handle all Falun Gong cases in Meizhou City, with Wu Wenlong being the presiding judge for most of the cases.
Mr. Chen Zhikun was arrested at home on August 8, 2022, by officers from the Wuhua County Police Department. His computer and printer were confiscated. He was put in criminal detention the next day, and his arrest was approved by the Wuhua County Procuratorate on August 19, 2022. The Meixian District Court sentenced him to 2.5 years with a 30,000-yuan fine (exact sentencing date unknown). He appealed to the Meizhou City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold his original verdict in February 2023.
Mr. Chen, a 41-year-old native of Chongqing, took up Falun Gong in 1997 while he was a high school freshman. He became a high school teacher in Liangping County in Chongqing after graduating from college. He was arrested by the police in Liangping County in October 2010 and given one year of forced labor on November 10, 2010. He was 28 years old that year.
Mr. Chen was arrested again in 2014 for distributing Falun Gong materials in Zhejiang Province and sentenced to three years and three months by the Luqiao Court in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province on August 4, 2014. He was released on July 19, 2017.