Private School Owner Faces Trial for Practicing Falun Gong, 129 Locals Sign Petition Demanding His Release
(Minghui.org) A 51-year-old resident of Sanhe City, Hebei Province is facing trial for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. A total of 129 locals have signed a petition calling for his immediate and unconditional release.
Mr. Zhang Xuefu was arrested on July 14, 2023, and had his case submitted to the Sanhe City Procuratorate on September 27. The procuratorate indicted him at an unknown date, and forwarded his case to the Sanhe City Court on October 27. He is now awaiting trial at the Sanhe City Detention Center.
Mr. Zhang Xuefu
Mr. Zhang taught at the Shengjiatun Elementary School and the Sanhe City No. 14 Middle School before starting his own private school which now boasts three campuses. He was known as a dominant, impulsive, and chauvinistic man, but he turned into a humble, considerate, and kind person after he took up Falun Gong in 2015. When his school had to shut down during the pandemic, he took out a loan to still pay his faculty and staff.
He credits Falun Gong for giving him a big heart and curing his facial paralysis. As such, he distributed Falun Gong informational materials to inform the public that Falun Gong was nothing like what is depicted in the communist regime’s hate propaganda.
The local police harassed him at home three times in 2021 (in early March, on April 20, and December 8) and twice in late August 2022. They warned him to no longer distribute Falun Gong materials. On July 3, 2023, an officer called him ordering him to report to them. He did not go and was arrested days later, on July 14.
Latest Arrest
Mr. Zhang lives in Cangtou Village, Yanjiao Town, Dongshi District, Sanhe City. Several officers from the Yanshun Road Police Station came to arrest him at just past noon on July 14, 2023. He was not home, and the Yanjiao Town Police Station took over and arrested him at his private school in Dongshi District at around 4 p.m. that day.
Mr. Zhang condemned the police for arresting him without showing any IDs or an arrest warrant. Deputy chief Liu Zepeng, who led the arrest, called his supervisor to ask for instructions. The higher-up ordered an officer to immediately go to the Sanhe City Police Department to fetch a temporary arrest warrant. The police then took Mr. Zhang to the Yanjiao Town Police Station.
The police targeted Mr. Zhang because they suspected that he distributed Falun Gong informational materials at the Tianyangcheng Community (a residential complex in Yanjiao Town) on July 8, 2023. Security guards Jin Honghai and Yan Tongbo of the residential complex reported to the police that day that they had just discovered some Falun Gong materials in unit 2 of Apartment Building 1.
The police pored over the residential complex’s surveillance videos and noted that Mr. Zhang’s car had entered and exited the complex that day. They next looked into the doorbell videos of unit 2 and saw footage of a man outside the unit. The footage was only a few seconds long and very grainy. Yet the police “put two and two together” and concluded that Mr. Zhang was the suspect who distributed all the Falun Gong materials that were found in the residential complex on July 8, 2023, not just unit 2.
To justify their accusation, the police next showed the footage to Sun Xiaozhong (+86-13131697361), secretary of Cangtou Village, and pressured him to “confirm” that the man in the blurry video was Mr. Zhang, even though no one could really make out who the person was from the footage alone.
Mr. Zhang said he had distributed Falun Gong materials in the past (which was totally lawful given that no law in China has criminalized Falun Gong), but he did not do so in the said residential complex on the said day. As such, he refused to answer questions or “admit guilt” while being interrogated at the Yanjiao Town Police Station.
Three other officers from the Yanjiao Town Police Station, including Zhang Hongqiu, raided Mr. Zhang’s home at around 9 p.m. on the night of his arrest on July 14, 2023. Zhang flashed his ID and a search warrant without allowing Mr. Zhang’s family to take a look. They searched every room but did not seize any items.
First Lawyer Denied Visit with Mr. Zhang
Mr. Zhang was held at the Yanjiao Town Police Station for about 24 hours before being taken to the Sanhe City Detention Center at around 4 p.m. on July 15, 2023.
His family received notice of his criminal detention on July 19. The Sanhe City Procuratorate called his family on July 25 saying that he asked to see a lawyer. His family immediately hired a lawyer for him but the lawyer was denied visits with him at the detention center on July 26. The lawyer soon dropped his case, so his family hired a new lawyer.
Second Lawyer Forced to Sign Non-disclosure Agreement
The Sanhe City Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for Mr. Zhang on July 27. His new lawyer requested to visit him that day but was turned away. The lawyer then went to the procuratorate to appeal for his right to meet with his client. The procuratorate finally granted him a visit for the next day.
The lawyer met with Mr. Zhang on July 28, as scheduled. Several officers from the Yanjiao Town Police Station showed up at the detention center and insisted that the lawyer sign a non-disclosure agreement barring him from revealing to the outside world what his client had said to him. One report said the police forced the lawyer to sign the agreement before he went inside to visit Mr. Zhang, and another report said that the police waited until he came out of the detention center. [Due to the communist regime’s censorship, Minghui correspondents cannot always obtain accurate information in a timely manner.]
This lawyer, however, had to quit due to some personal reasons.
The police submitted the case against Mr. Zhang to the Sanhe City Procuratorate on September 27, and the procuratorate forwarded it to the Sanhe City Court on October 27.
Third Lawyer Encounters Obstacles After Successful Online Booking of Appointment with Mr. Zhang
Mr. Zhang’s family hired a third lawyer after the second lawyer dropped his case. The new lawyer went to the Sanhe City Court on November 3 to submit his paperwork for representing Mr. Zhang. He also scheduled an appointment online to visit Mr. Zhang at 3:30 p.m. the next day.
When the lawyer went to the detention center on November 4, the guard on duty said no more lawyer visits for Mr. Zhang were allowed because he had already seen two lawyers (even though the first lawyer was never allowed to see him). The third lawyer said that he was newly hired and that he had never met his client. He added that he had already submitted proof in the online appointment system showing that Mr. Zhang’s family had formally terminated his first two lawyers.
The guard on duty claimed that the proof did not meet the detention center’s requirements, as it must also bear seals of the first two lawyers’ law firms. Mr. Zhang’s third lawyer refuted that any client can terminate their attorney without the latter’s or their law firm’s consent.
The guard on duty would not budge and the lawyer proposed that he directly talk to Mr. Zhang’s daughter, who was waiting outside the detention center.
The guard on duty agreed but the security guard at the gate refused to let Mr. Zhang’s daughter in, on the grounds that only lawyers were allowed to enter. Mr. Zhang’s lawyer then ran back inside to talk to the guard on duty, who said he could ask the security guard to call him. The security guard said it was not his job to call the guard on duty. The lawyer again went back inside but the guard on duty sent him to talk to the security guard again.
After a few rounds of such back and forth, Mr. Zhang’s daughter was finally allowed inside. The guard on duty asked her to call her father’s second lawyer and her mother to verify certain information before finally allowing the third lawyer to meet with Mr. Zhang.