Four Jilin Residents Stand Trial for Posting Information about Falun Gong on Social Media

(Minghui.org) Four residents in Jilin Province stood trial on January 18, 2024 for posting information about Falun Gong on Kwai and TikTok, both short-video sharing platforms. 

Falun Gong is a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. According to insiders, the Jilin Province 610 Office, an extralegal agency tasked with overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong, ordered the arrests of the four Jilin Falun Gong practitioners. The police monitored them and tapped their phones for months before arresting them on July 12, 2023.

Mr. Xie Feng, a resident of Nong’an County (which is under the jurisdiction of the capital city of Changchun), was arrested by the Baicheng City Police Department. They confiscated his Falun Gong books and took him to the Baicheng City Detention Center, which declined to admit him after he failed the required physical examination. He was released on bail.

Ms. Huang Mei and two other practitioners whose names were unknown were also arrested the same day. It is unclear where these three practitioners live in Jilin Province and whether they were also released on bail.

The Zhenlai County Police Department in Baicheng City was tasked with collecting evidence against the four practitioners. The cases were then assigned to Taonan City, which is under the administration of Baicheng City. 

Prosecutor Liu Jiajia ([phone]) of the Taonan City Procuratorate indicted the four practitioners, and the Taonan City Court heard their cases separately on January 18, 2024. The same judge Lin Li ([phone]) presided over all four trials.

Each practitioner was only allowed to have one family member attend their hearing, which lasted less than 40 minutes.

Mr. Xie did not have a lawyer and he testified in his own defense. It is unclear whether the other three practitioners used their own lawyers or court-appointed lawyers.