(Minghui.org) Mr. Wang Yanhui from Baoding City, Hebei Province, was secretly sentenced to three years on August 4, 2023, for practicing his faith, Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Wang Yanhui’s family was not notified of his indictment, trial, or sentencing. His wife did not learn of his wrongful conviction until September 12, 2023, when he was allowed to call her from Hebei Province Prison.
Mr. Wang was initially arrested on September 12, 2021, but was released on house arrest due to poor health. The police harassed him numerous times in the next 17 months before taking him back into custody on May 4, 2023.
Arrested in 2021
Mr. Wang lives in Lizhuang Township, Qingyuan District, Baoding City. He went to nearby Ranzhuang Town (in the same district) on September 12, 2021, to distribute Falun Gong informational materials. Officers from the Ranzhuang Town Police Station arrested him after receiving a tip about what he was doing. They took him to their supervising agency, the Qingyuan District Police Department, that afternoon. He was then given a physical examination and found to have a lazy eye, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high blood sugar. The police released him that night.
The Qingyuan District Police Department assigned the case to Chief Wang Pengfei (no relation, +86-15128960100) of the Yangcheng Town Police Station in the Qingyuan District.
Chief Wang led an officer and arrested Mr. Wang on October 28, 2021. They did not show their IDs and claimed they were representing the Hebei Province Public Security Bureau in arresting him. They took him to the Qingyuan District Police Department and accused him of, “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners. They drove him to a hospital for a physical examination. The health reports again indicated he had the same set of medical conditions and he was again deemed unfit for detention.
Chief Wang released Mr. Wang after the physical examination, but he summoned him to the Qingyuan District Police Department the next day. After forcing him to sign a house arrest notice, chief Wang drove him to the Baoding City Detention Center, still attempting to get him detained despite the house arrest notice. The detention center firmly refused to admit Mr. Wang and chief Wang then drove him home.
More Harassment in 2022
On April 18, 2022, chief Wang and a staffer from the Qingyuan District Procuratorate called Mr. Wang, and ordered him to report to the procuratorate. Mr. Wang refused to comply, citing his medical conditions. The procuratorate staffer then ordered him to put in writing his “crime” of practicing Falun Gong and said they would come and collect his statement later.
On May 8, 2022, chief Wang and another person broke into Mr. Wang’s home. They produced an arrest warrant and ordered him to sign. He refused to sign and they left.
Chief Wang returned a few days later with several officers. They ordered Mr. Wang to go with them to the Qingyuan District Police Department. He refused to comply and chief Wang called in two officers from the Lizhuang Township Police Station. Upon Mr. Wang’s strong protest, the police left without arresting him.
More than ten people led by chief Wang broke into Mr. Wang’s home on the night of July 27, 2022. Chief Wang saw Mr. Wang’s grandson playing with a cell phone in bed and grabbed it. The child was terrified and couldn’t sleep that night.
Chief Wang and several plainclothes officers from the Qingyuan District Police Department went to Mr. Wang’s home on August 12, 2022. No one was there so they took pictures of the house and asked Mr. Wang’s neighbors where he was. While the police still lingered at the house, Mr. Wang’s wife returned. She asked them who they were and demanded to see their IDs. One officer whipped out something from his pocket and flashed it in front of her. He put it back before she got a chance to see what it was.
The police left but chief Wang later talked to the Lizhuang Township government officials and asked about Mr. Wang.
On the afternoon of September 18, 2022, someone from the Lizhuang Township government called Mr. Wang’s wife and told her to report to the Lizhuang Township Police Station with the village secretary the next day.
Around 10 p.m. that night, four agents from the Qingyuan District Police Department and Lizhuang Township Police Station went to Mr. Wang’s father’s house.
The elder Mr. Wang refused to open the gate so the police scaled the fence and jumped into the yard. They pounded on the door and asked if his son was there. Mr. Wang condemned them for persecuting law-abiding citizens and they left about 20 minutes later. The next day, the elder Mr. Wang went to the Lizhuang Township Police Station and chief Guo Liwen said chief Wang asked him to get involved in his son’s case.
On September 23, 2022, Mr. Wang and his wife were summoned to the Lizhuang Township Police Station, where they were met with chief Wang, chief Guo and officers from the Qingyuan District Police Department. She was pressured and threatened. Mr. Wang’s wife signed the house arrest notice while her husband was not looking. The couple were then let go. It is unclear why the police sought Mr. Wang’s signature on the house arrest again when chief Wang already forced him to sign on October 28, 2021. It could be that the first house arrest expired. The details are being investigated.
A few days later, the Qingyuan District Justice Bureau went to Mr. Wang’s home. Two women photographed him and said that he was formally placed under house arrest.
Taken Back into Custody on May 4, 2023, and Sentenced Months Later
On April 18, 2023, chief Wang forced Mr. Wang and his wife to go to the Gaoyang County Procuratorate to process paperwork to have his house arrest extended by three more months. A staffer at the procuratorate told Mr. Wang that he could appeal the house arrest within ten days.
Mr. Wang went to the Gaoyang County Procuratorate on April 26, 2023 to submit his application to lift the house arrest and dismiss his case. By law, the procuratorate should issue a response within three days, but Mr. Wang never heard back.
On May 4, 2023, Mr. Wang went to the Qingyuan District Police Department to submit a complaint against chief Wang and the others involved in his persecution. The police department refused to accept his complaint and referred him to the Gaoyang County Procuratorate, which directed him to the Discipline Inspection Commission, which sent him to the Appeals Office. He was then instructed to submit his complaint to the Yangcheng Town Police Station instead. When he went there he was arrested.
Mr. Wang’s wife went to the police station to seek his release and was told that chief Wang was not in and that they had no idea where her husband was taken. She later learned that he had been taken to the Baoding City Detention Center.
Mr. Wang’s lawyer visited him at the detention center on May 15, 2023, and learned that the guards there did not allow him to write a new complaint.
On May 22, 2023, Mr. Wang’s wife mailed the complaint he had already written to the Qingyuan District Police Department. She also requested that they not issue a formal arrest warrant against him. She went to the police department on May 30 and was told that her husband had been formally arrested. She then received a formal notice of the arrest warrant dated May 12.
She went to the Gaoyang County Procuratorate on June 5 to submit a request to revoke her husband’s formal arrest warrant. The procuratorate refused to accept her request and said her husband’s case had been forwarded to the Gaoyang City Court. She went to the court and was told that the case had not yet been filed with them.
The procuratorate and the court did not give Mr. Wang’s wife any updates on his case. She received a call from him on September 22 and only then did she learn of his prison sentence.
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