(Minghui.org) At least 43 Falun Gong practitioners have been sentenced to prison by the Shushan District Court in Hefei City, Anhui Province, since the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of the ancient spiritual and meditation discipline in July 1999.
The 43 practitioners aged from 29 to 83 at the time of their sentencing include nine in their 70s and two in their 80s. Their prison terms ranged from seven months to six years, with an average of two years and four months. A 73-year-old woman, who was sentenced to three years and ten months, died three months after her conviction. A 53-year-old man, who was sentenced to one and a half years in 2020, was injected with toxic drugs while in custody, and he passed away in mid-August 2022.
Among the total 46 sentencing cases (three of the practitioners were sentenced twice by the same court), five cases took place in 1999 and 2010, while the remaining 41 cases happened after 2019. The sudden increase of sentencing cases in recent years came after the Shushan District Court was designated as the court to handle all Falun Gong cases in the greater Hefei region in February 2018.
The main judges who sentenced the practitioners were Wu Xiaoshui, Ni Na, Zhu Chuannian, and Bi Dongfeng. Wu was involved in fifteen sentencing cases, Ni was responsible for ten cases, Zhu handed down the conviction of four practitioners, and Bi sentenced at least three practitioners. Because of their active participation in the persecution, they have also received promotions: Wu became the president of the criminal court; Ni and Bi were both promoted as vice presidents of the criminal court; and Zhu became the Party secretary of the court.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors of the Shushan District Procuratorate who indicted the practitioners were also promoted: Dai Wenjun became the vice president, Li Weihua and Cui Donghai were appointed as members of the prosecution committee, and Li Jun was promoted to be the director of the second prosecution department.
Below are select sentencing cases by the Shushan District Court. The full list of the cases can be downloaded here (PDF).
Case 1: 73-Year-Old Woman Sentenced to Prison, Dies Three Months Later
Ms. Li Cuiping, of Hefei City, Anhui Province, was arrested in early September 2021 while withdrawing cash at a bank. She was held in a brainwashing center for two weeks and released when she was extremely weak. Not long after, she was ordered to appear in Shushan District Court on September 24. As she was too weak to walk on her own, several bailiffs carried her into the car and took her to the court.
Ms. Li was later sentenced to three years and ten months. The prison refused to accept her due to her health condition. She returned home and passed away three months later in mid-December 2021. She was 73.
Case 2: Anhui Man Given Toxic Injection While in Detention, Dies Ten Months After Release
Mr. Peng Yuxin, a former employee of the Anhui Provincial Statistics Bureau, was arrested in his neighborhood on April 24, 2020. Without showing any IDs, search warrants, or revealing their names, the police raided his home and confiscated his laptop, two printers, 50 Falun Gong books, and 500 yuan in cash. He was released at around 11 p.m.
Mr. Peng went to the police station in May 2020 to demand the return of his personal items, only to be arrested and held at the Hefei City Detention Center. He was later secretly sentenced to 1.5 years and ordered to serve time in the same detention center.
One month before he was released, Mr. Peng was taken out of the detention center six times and injected with a pink liquid each time. By the time he was released on October 23, 2021, he had lost nearly all his ability to talk or organize coherent speech.
He could only occasionally utter a few words. When asked whether he was given toxic injections, he nodded. His overall cognition had also declined significantly. He was unable to write his address. But when others wrote several addresses, he was able to recognize his home address. Due to his overall situation, it’s unclear whether Mr. Peng suffered other torture while in custody.
Mr. Peng struggled with poor health following his release, especially given that he lived on his own. In mid-August 2022, local Falun Gong practitioners suddenly heard the news of his passing. According to his sister, Mr. Peng’s neighbor reported his death to the police, and the autopsy report issued by the Shushan District Police Department stated that he died of a stroke. He was 55.
Case 3: Centenarian Appeals for Release of 80-Year-Old Daughter Illegally Sentenced for Her Faith
Ms. Gao Zonghua, 78, a resident of Hefei City, Anhui Province, was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 2,000 yuan on January 24, 2019, by the Shushan District Court, for talking to people about Falun Gong. The sentence came only two years after she finished serving a previous seven-year term, also for her faith.
Ms. Gao’s centenarian mother went to the court with her granddaughter to appeal for her release on January 21, 2019, only to be rejected by judge Ni Na, who convicted her daughter three days later. The elderly mother grieved over not being able to celebrate the traditional Chinese New Year holiday in February with her daughter.
Case 4: Anhui Man Who Once Served 14.5 Years in Prison Sentenced Again for His Faith
Mr. Zhang Xinhong, a 64-year-old resident of Hefei City, Anhui Province, was sentenced to his third prison term in July 2019 for not renouncing his faith in Falun Gong, after having served two earlier terms for a total of 14.5 years.
Mr. Zhang was most recently arrested on May 8, 2018, after being reported for talking to someone about Falun Gong. He appeared in the Shushan District Court on May 30, 2019. Two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for him. The judge sentenced him to three years and four months in late July.
Prior to his latest sentencing, Mr. Zhang was arrested another time in late November 2000 while living in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. He was sentenced to ten years in late 2001 by the local court and served time in Zhejiang No.4 Prison.
Mr. Zhang was arrested again at home in May 2010. By then he had moved to Hefei City. The police ransacked his home and held him in the Hefei City No.1 Detention Center, and more than a month in a brainwashing center.
Mr. Zhang was tried by the Shushan District Court in December 2010. No lawyer represented him. The judge simply asked him several questions and then adjourned the proceedings. He was later sentenced to four and a half years.
Case 5: Three Anhui Residents Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong
Three Hefei residents were sentenced to prison in November 2023 for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Li Caixia, 29, was given four years; Mr. Sun Shiwei was sentenced to three years; and Ms. Zhang Ling received a probation term.
Ms. Li and Ms. Zhang were arrested on the evening of November 2, 2021, for distributing information about Falun Gong. The police raided Ms. Li’s home the next day and also arrested Mr. Sun.
While Ms. Zhang and Mr. Sun were soon released on bail, Ms. Li was held at the Hefei City Women’s Detention Center. The police submitted the three practitioners’ cases to the Shushan District Procuratorate around February 10, 2022. Prosecutor Li Jun was placed in charge of their cases.
The three practitioners appeared in the Shushan District Court on June 2, 2023. The judges, Wu Xiaoshui and Bi Dongfeng, sentenced them in November 2023.
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