(Minghui.org) A Jinan City, Shandong Province resident was sentenced to 3.5 years on December 28, 2020, for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Li Weizong
Mr. Li Weizong, 58, worked at a brick factory in nearby Binzhou City. He was first arrested on the afternoon of March 11, 2020, after he was noticed by the police through a surveillance camera for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong after work. Due to the pandemic, the police released him on bail in the evening.
Seven months later, on October 14, the police arrested him again at work and have kept him at the Zouping District Detention Center in Binzhou City since.
His family hired a lawyer to represent him. When the lawyer went to the detention center to visit him, the guards demanded that he first obtain permission from the police first. The lawyer then contacted the police, who questioned him in detail of how Mr. Li’s family found him. After several days of negotiation, the lawyer was allowed to talk to Mr. Li through a video meeting.
After the police submitted Mr. Li’s case to the Zouping District Procuratorate in early December 2020, his lawyer also submitted his legal opinion, urging the prosecutor not to indict him. The lawyer wrote that no law ever criminalizes Falun Gong in China and Mr. Li’s distributing the materials is his constitutional right and he didn’t cause harm to anyone or undermine the enforcement of any law, as the police claimed in the case against him.
The prosecutor, however, responded to the lawyer that as Mr. Li refused to plead guilty, the higher-up has instructed them to hand down a heavy term against him.
The prosecutor quickly indicted Mr. Li on December 11 and he was booked to stand trial online from the detention center by the Zouping District Court on December 28. His family wasn’t allowed to attend it.
Mr. Li’s lawyer entered a not guilty plea for him at the hearing. He pointed out that the police didn’t provide any evidence of how his client had undermined law enforcement by distributing Falun Gong materials, which has become the standard pretext used by the authorities to frame Falun Gong practitioners.
The police, on the other hand, argued that Mr. Li is a repeat offender, as he had been sentenced to 1.5 years for practicing Falun Gong in 2018.
The judge sentenced Mr. Li to 3.5 years with a 5,000 yuan fine at the end of the trial. He appealed the case with the Binzhou City Intermediate Court.
Mr. Li’s family wasn’t notified of his verdict until early January 2021.
Past Persecution
Mr. Li used to suffer severe headaches, neck and stomach problems. Due to his health condition, he had to quit school and missed the opportunity to attend college.
After he took up Falun Gong, his health recovered and he disciplined himself by Falun Gong’s principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.” He often helps local villagers with their farm work, fixes their farming equipment, or makes donations to repair the road. He rarely turned people down when they came to him for help. Many villagers often said to him, “You Falun Gong practitioners are really kind!”
For hanging up Falun Gong banners to raise awareness about the persecution, Mr. Li was arrested on January 20, 2017. After over a year of detention at Zhoucun District Detention Center, he was sentenced to 1.5 years by Zhoucun District Court on April 9, 2018, and released in late July 2018.
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