(Minghui.org) A resident of Yinchuan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined 100,000 yuan for not renouncing his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Luan Ning's latest sentencing was preceded by two prison terms of three and four years, also for his faith in Falun Gong.
Mr. Luan was targeted after being reported for mailing letters with information about Falun Gong in February 2017. The police followed and monitored him for a few months and arrested him on August 27, 2017.
His arrest was approved by Xingqing District Procuratorate in mid-December 2017, who forwarded the case to Xingqing District Court on March 20, 2018, after returning it once to the police for insufficient evidence. The prosecutor charged him with “subverting state power,” a standard pretext often levied against human rights activists and Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese communist regime.
After Mr. Luan's lawyer argued that the lower judiciary system didn't have the legal authority to try a case related to state issues, the case was transferred to the higher level Yinchuan City Procuratorate and then to the Yinchuan City Intermediate Court on September 5, 2018.
The intermediate court also rejected the case due to insufficient evidence in October 2018 and returned it to the Yinchuan City Procuratorate. The intermediate court judge later accepted it upon the prosecutor's second attempt. The judge held a pretrial meeting of Mr. Luan on January 10, 2019, and then a hearing on February 14, before announcing the lengthy prison term against him on April 16, 2019.
Falun Gong Practitioner Tried on Charges of “Subverting State Power” Over Questionable Evidence
Falun Gong Case Rejected from Hearing Due to Insufficient Evidence
Mr. Luan Ning Charged with “Subverting the State”