(Minghui.org) Two Guiyang City residents were sentenced to prison on May 18, 2018 for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
As no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong, Mr. Zhou Xiaochao went on a hunger strike on May 30 to protest the illegal sentencing. Mr. Shi Denglin joined him on June 3.
While Mr. Shi ended his hunger strike on June 14, Mr. Zhou continued his hunger strike until late June. Mr. Zhou had already appeared emaciated when his parents visited him on June 6. His family and friends are extremely worried about his well-being.
This is not the first time that Mr. Zhou, an entrepreneur in his 40s, has gone on a hunger strike since he and Mr. Shi were arrested on July 7, 2017. He started his first hunger strike two days after the arrest and stopped six days later when he and Mr. Shi were finally allowed to hire lawyers.
Mr. Shi, an army veteran, had previously served a five-year term for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.
Mr. Zhou's parents had tried to persuade their son to stop his hunger strike for the sake of his health, but he refused and explained his three reasons for refusing to eat.
First, Guiding County Court sentenced him and Mr. Shi for violating Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which says anyone using a cult to undermine law enforcement shall be punished to the maximum extent possible. But the People's Congress, China's law-making body, has never enacted any law that says practicing Falun Gong is a crime or ever labeled it a cult.
Second, the two lawyers representing him and Mr. Shi refuted the baseless charges and prosecution evidence against them. Judge Luo Tao alleged that the lawyers were also Falun Gong practitioners, which is not true, and refused to consider the defense arguments when meting out sentences.
Third, Mr. Zhou's and Mr. Shi's practice of Falun Gong is a matter of spiritual belief and has nothing to do with politics. Prosecutor Xu Yan, however, accused them of anti-Party, anti-society, and anti-19th-Party-Congress. The lawyers pointed out that their clients were arrested months before the 19th Party Congress began and asked how it could be possible for them to do anything against the Congress while in custody. Xu refused to listen and recommended 4-6 year prison sentences for Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi.
Mr. Zhou's parents eventually understood their son's decision to go on a hunger strike, and they asked that he be released on medical parole. The authorities at Guiding County Detention Center, where Mr. Zhou was held, promised to send in the paperwork. So far there hasn't been any update on their parole request.
While Mr. Zhou is appealing his case, many of his old classmates are calling for his unconditional release. They knew him as a good person with a big heart. Mr. Zhou, who was from a well-to-do family, often helped his classmates who were in financial difficulty. Some of the classmates later visited Mr. Zhou's parents and told the couple how they were able to finish school thanks to their son's financial support. Only then did the couple learn of their son's good deeds.
Mr. Zhou also became a successful entrepreneur like his parents. As a matter of fact, he was named “Outstanding Entrepreneur” in 2016 and sent to the U.S. for an all-expense-paid visit by Guizhou Province government.
Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi were driving in Guiding County on July 7, 2017, when their car was pulled over. They were targeted because police suspected them of using pseudo base stations to send bulk text messages about Falun Gong.
Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi appeared in court on April 25, 2018. Two lawyers, Mr. Mao and Mr. Li, represented the two Falun Gong practitioners together. Mr. Zhou actually had a second lawyer, but the latter was not allowed to attend the trial, much less defend him in court. Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi together had only three family members allowed inside the courtroom, which was filled with police and judicial workers.
Prosecutor Xu alleged that police found pseudo base stations, cell phones, and other equipment in the car that Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi drove. None of the items, however, was shown in court.
The indictment stated that three different companies testified that Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi had sent out texts about Falun Gong. Chongqing Electronics Company claimed that the two men sent out more than 290,000 texts to more than 240,000 of its users. Qiannanzhou Electronics Company claimed that 190,000 texts were sent to more than 190,000 people. Qiannanzhou Mobile Company said three of their stations covering more than 1,000 users received such texts.
The two lawyers asked why the three companies gave such vastly different numbers, and Xu claimed that was due to different statistical methods.
The indictment also stated that the defendants were caught sending out texts at three different locations at 2:45 p.m. on July 7, 2017. The lawyers asked how it was possible for the two defendants to appear in three different locations at the same time. The lawyers also pointed out that their clients had been arrested by 2:30 p.m. that day, and that there was no way for them to be still sending out texts while in police custody.
Xu had no answer. She later called in two prosecution witnesses, Wu Xin and Luo Zhenshan (both technicians of Qiannanzhou Wireless Authority), who testified that they reported Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi to police after discovering they sent out Falun Gong-related texts. Yao Feng, deputy chief of Guiding County Police Station, soon ordered the arrest of Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi.
Wu and Luo, however, couldn't explain how they found out it was Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi that sent the texts.
Xu alleged that a total of five people received Falun Gong texts and took pictures of the messages. The defense lawyers argued that by law each piece of prosecution evidence must bear two witnesses. Each of the five pictures, however, only had one witness.
The lawyers and their clients requested the prosecution evidence be verified by a third-party, but judge Luo rejected the request.
The lawyers proceeded to testify against police for failing to follow legal procedures in arresting and interrogating their clients.
In order to extract “confessions” from Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi, police ran a marathon interrogation at the Guiding County Detention Center for two straight days, during which time Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi were not allowed to sleep.
Hours after arresting the two practitioners on July 7, 2017, about three dozen agents from the Guiding County Police Department, the Guiyang City Police Department, the Bihai Police Station, and the Guizhou Province Public Security Bureau Special Task Force descended on Mr. Zhou’s parents’ home. Without showing any ID or search warrant, they searched the home from about 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. They left with several bags of confiscated Falun Gong books.
About two dozen agents went to Mr. Zhou’s home on July 10, 2017. No one was home, and they opened the door with a master key. They didn’t find any evidence they wanted and ordered the local utility company to cut off the electricity and natural gas to Mr. Zhou’s home.
Given above, the lawyers asked their clients be cleared of all charges. Mr. Zhou and Mr. Shi also reiterated that they broke no law by practicing Falun Gong and demanded their acquittal.
Judge Luo still convicted the two practitioners on May 18, 2018.
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