(Minghui.org) Three Falun Gong practitioners in Liquan County, Shaanxi Province, were sentenced to prison on February 19, 2024. Two of them have appealed their verdicts.
Ms. Li Jing was sentenced to four and a half years with a 10,000-yuan fine, Ms. Li Xianghong (no relation) was given four years with a 10,000-yuan fine, and Mr. Zhang Tao was sentenced to 10 months and fined 5,000 yuan. Both women have appealed with the Xianyang City Intermediate Court.
When the three practitioners (along with three other practitioners) went to nearby Qian County to deliver Falun Gong materials in September 2022, they were recorded by surveillance cameras. Police officers broke into Ms. Li Xianghong’s clothing store on September 30, 2022, and confiscated her Falun Gong books. Other officers raided Ms. Li Jing’s store and arrested her, while Mr. Zhang was arrested at the driving school where he worked.
The other three practitioners—Ms. Zhang Lan, Mr. Shang Gaochao, and his wife Ms. Quan Xiaoyan—were also arrested that day, but all were released, Mr. Shang and his wife after being held for 15 days and Ms. Zhang after 34 days.
Ms. Li Jing, Ms. Li Xianghong and Mr. Zhang’s arrests were approved by the Qian County Procuratorate on November 4, 2022. The women held a hunger strike to protest and were in serious condition.
The Qian County Procuratorate transferred the three practitioners’ joint case to the Qindu District Procuratorate in early February 2023. Prosecutor Qiu Zhili indicted them and moved their case to the Qindu District Court a month later.
The three stood trial on April 25, 2023. They maintained that they didn’t violate any law by practicing Falun Gong or raising awareness about the persecution. Prosecutor Qiu recommended that Mr. Zhang be sentenced to eight months and the women to between three and seven years.
After the hearing, Mr. Zhang’s family and lawyer repeatedly contacted presiding judge Wang Zhihui and demanded his release, but Wang refused to see them. The lawyer filed several complaints against Wang, but to no avail. Wang revealed to the lawyer that he didn’t have any say in the practitioners’ sentences, which were decided by the higher-ups.
On February 19, 2024, ten months after the hearing, judge Wang finally announced the verdicts.
Ms. Li Jing and Ms. Li Xianghong appealed their verdicts with the Xianyang City Intermediate Court. They argued that the prosecution evidence—Falun Gong materials confiscated from their homes—failed to show how they had violated the law or caused harm to others or society at large.
They also pointed out that, according to Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Law, “A people’s court shall pronounce the judgment on a case of public prosecution within two months or not later than three months, upon acceptance thereof.” In their case, it took the trial court ten months to announce the verdicts.
Another violation of legal procedure had to do with new evidence. When te court notified the prosecutor on September 28, 2023, to submit additional evidence about the case, the prosecutor had the police submit the evidence on October 12, 2023. The court, however, never held another hearing to cross examine the new evidence.
In the verdict, the judge cited the practitioners’ previous encounters with the legal system and accused them of being repeat offenders, including both Ms. Li Ling and Ms. Li Xianghong’s 15-day administration detention after being arrested on June 27, 2016, for talking to people about Falun Gong; Ms. Li Jing’s 16-month sentence and a 3,000-yuan fine by the Zhashui County Court on August 6, 2018; and Ms. Li Jing’s other arrest on April 15, 2020, and subsequent 15-day administration detention and 1,000-yuan fine. The practitioners argued that this was evidence of how they were persecuted for their faith and shouldn’t be used to subject to further prosecution.
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