(Minghui.org) A resident of Lanxi County, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to three years and fined 10,000-yuan on June 27, 2024 for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The guilty verdict of Mr. Liu Min was exactly the same as that reached during an earlier trial in April 2024 which his family was not allowed to attend. His loved ones hired a new lawyer, who managed to get the court to declare the earlier trial a mistrial. The new trial in June 2024, however, yielded the same outcome.
Mr. Liu was arrested at home at around 9 a.m. on November 13, 2023, by agents from the Lanxi County Police Department. A witness reported seeing five or six plainclothes officers, one of them a woman, descended on Mr. Liu’s apartment building in two private cars that day. They took Mr. Liu away but brought him back at around 2 p.m. to raid his home. They confiscated his Falun Gong books and took him to the Lanxi County Lockup. Fifteen days later, they transferred him to the Lanxi County Detention Center, where he remains.
Captain Liu Xiaobo (+86-13904558767) fabricated evidence against Mr. Liu and submitted his case to the Lanxi County Procuratorate, which returned the case and declined to issue a formal arrest warrant against him. Liu then worked hand in glove with Qin Zhongwei (+86-13836408899), deputy police chief and head of the 610 Office, and submitted the case to the Anda City Procuratorate.
Both Lanxi County and Anda City are under the administration of Suihua City. The Anda City Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant against Mr. Liu and the Anda City Court appointed a lawyer to represent him.
The court-appointed lawyer notified Mr. Liu’s family that his court date was set for April 2, 2024. The family arrived at the Anda City Court that day to see no one there. They called the lawyer and were told that the trial was actually being held in a courtroom inside the detention center.
Mr. Liu’s family rushed to the detention center but was not allowed to go in. They waited outside for the lawyer to come out. The lawyer stepped out in a while and said that Mr. Liu had been sentenced to three years and fined 10,000 yuan.
The lawyer added that the prosecution evidence included a printer confiscated from Mr. Liu’s home and a woman’s witness account against him. His family knew right away the evidence was fabricated as they had no printer at home to begin with.
Mr. Liu’s family was asked to prepare clothes for him. The lawyer said they’d be allowed to visit him once a written verdict was issued.
Not knowing anything about the April 2 trial, Mr. Liu’s family hired a civil rights lawyer to enter a not guilty plea for him. The new lawyer visited him at the detention center on April 9 and reviewed his case file afterwards. The lawyer requested a retrial given how the police had violated legal procedures in arresting and seeking prosecution of Mr. Liu.
The lawyer visited Mr. Liu again on May 7. Upon his requests, the Anda City Court revoked its initial ruling and returned the case to the Lanxi County Police Department for further investigation.
The Anda City Court re-tried Mr. Liu at the Lanxi County Court on June 26. His lawyer defended his innocence in exercising his constitutional right to freedom of belief. Judge Yi Daming (+86-13946930066, +86-18545930838) sentenced him to three years with a 10,000-yuan fine the next day. His family learned of the sentence from his lawyer on July 4.
Heilongjiang Man Faces Indictment for His Faith, Denied Family Visits