(Minghui.org) A 62-year-old resident of Tai’an City, Shandong Province, stood trial on November 13, 2024 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Zhao Weidong testified in his own defense. His lawyer also called for his acquittal as no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong. The prosecutor recommended a prison sentence of 3-7 years with three years probation. The presiding judge, who appeared sympathetic, told Mr. Zhao at the end of the hearing, “I suggest you just practice [Falun Gong] at home. For the sake of your children, do not go out [to raise awareness of the persecution].” It is unclear when he’ll make a ruling.
Mr. Zhao remains at the Tai’an City Detention Center.
Mr. Zhao and his wife, Ms. Sun Xiuwei, were making plastic bag deliveries to a local supermarket on September 12, 2024, when Hou Xinliang and a few other officers from the Xujialou Police Station suddenly showed up. They shoved Mr. Zhao to the ground and handcuffed him. Two officers twisted Ms. Sun’s arms.
The couple was taken to the Qiujiadian Town Police Station and interrogated separately. Officer Wang Qingmin and another man questioned Mr. Zhao. Around 2 p.m., someone came to give him a physical examination. He refused to comply and his head was injured during the struggle. He bled profusely, and the police called an ambulance. Ms. Sun saw the commotion and asked to go with her husband to the local health clinic. Three officers held her back but she managed to escape. A taxi happened to show up and she hopped in it and followed the ambulance.
Ms. Sun found her husband at the clinic and saw four officers were pressing him down on the bed. Two other officers, including Wang, grabbed her arms and dragged her to the backyard of the clinic. Several officers watched her. Since she had not eaten since early morning, she fainted. When she regained consciousness, she did not know how long she had been lying on the ground. She also did not know where the police took her husband.
Ms. Sun returned home past 5 p.m. that day. She called Hou, one of the arresting officers, but he refused to pick up the phone. Another officer came to her home on September 14 and ordered her to sign some paperwork. She refused. That same day, she received a notice in the mail stating that her husband had been taken to the Tai’an City Detention Center. She went there immediately but was not allowed to see him.
Mr. Zhao appeared in the Taishan District Court on November 13, 2024. No judges, police officers, prosecutor, or clerks wore uniforms as required by law. Agents from the local 610 Office were also present.
The Taishan District Procuratorate presented two major pieces of evidence. The first one was Mr. Zhao’s prior 12-year prison sentence that showed he was a “repeat offender.” Mr. Zhao was indeed arrested on June 25, 2004 for practicing Falun Gong and sentenced to 12 years on September 23 that year. He suffered brutal torture at the Shandong Province First Prison and his parents were so distraught that they both died, one in 2011 and one in 2014. His wife struggled to care for their two sons, one of them was disabled.
Mr. Zhao refuted that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong and that he should not have been jailed in the first place.
The prosecutor then brought up the second piece of evidence, namely, the two copies of Falun Gong informational materials found in Mr. Zhao’s bike basket in April 2022. Mr. Zhao said that day, he was walking his bike past a local technical school, when three officers suddenly surrounded him and knocked him down, causing severe chest injuries. While he did have two copies of materials in his bike basket at the time, he never placed the 16 more copies of Falun Gong informational materials on parked bikes as alleged by the police.
The presiding judge then showed a picture of the materials and asked Mr. Zhao what was written in it. He said it was all about advising people to be good. He asked the judge to read it out aloud but the judge was silent.
The prosecutor added that someone reported Mr. Zhao for placing Falun Gong materials in a bike basket that day in April 2022. She next played a footage showing a man wearing a helmet and a mask placing something on parked bikes. She claimed that the man in the video was Mr. Zhao. His lawyer countered that it was impossible to make out who the person was with a helmet and a mask on. The prosecutor remained silent.
Mr. Zhao explained how he and his wife took up Falun Gong. Their older son was deprived of oxygen for eight minutes during birth in 1992 and suffered permanent brain injuries. They tried all kinds of treatment but to no avail. Their own health also went downhill, with Ms. Sun suffering from severe frozen shoulder and Mr. Zhao had psoriasis, neurasthenia, severe dizziness, and back pain.
The couple’s symptoms disappeared after they both took up Falun Gong in May 1998. While their older son remained disabled, they felt more at peace and had more energy to care for him.
Their younger son was only five months old when Mr. Zhao was sentenced to 12 years in 2004. The boy had low self-esteem growing up because of his father’s imprisonment. He gradually regained confidence after Mr. Zhao’s release and later attended college. He has plans to attend graduate school after graduation.
An engineer by training, Mr. Zhao was deprived of his pension because of his faith. After his prison release, he and his wife sold plastic bags to make a living and put their younger son through college. He questioned how he, a family man working hard to support his family, could undermine the law enforcement by practicing Falun Gong as the prosecutor alleged. The judge didn’t try to stop his or his lawyer’s defense throughout the hearing, but advised him to not go out and tell people about the persecution for the sake of his children.
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