(Minghui.org) After damaging Falun Gong informational booths across Hong Kong in April 2021, three pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operatives appeared in court on March 28, 2023. Each was charged with two counts of criminal damage.
According to information provided by the prosecutor, defendant Hu Aimin sent a WeChat message before the incident claiming to “target all Falun Gong [practitioners] in Hong Kong tomorrow.” He also texted a friend saying that if something happened to him, his boss would provide his living expenses. The prosecutor said he believes the damaging incidents were planned.
In April 2021, pro-CCP operatives damaged Falun Gong booths on more than ten occasions. Among the eight people who were arrested, four pleaded guilty to “criminal damage” and were detained for eight months. One was not charged. The remaining appeared in court on March 28, 2023. They are Hu Aimin (47, unemployed), Zhou Yonglin (43, home renovation worker), and Zhuo Jinshen (53, unemployed).
All three men were suspected of damaging Falun Gong booths at Wong Tai Sin and Mong Kok on April 3, 2021. The property damage added up to 7,000 Hong Kong dollars. Each of these people was charged with two counts of criminal damage. In the beginning, they did not admit their crime, but Zhou pleaded guilty after the hearing started. The hearing continued at the Kowloon City Magistrates Court on March 28, under the direction of magistrate Frances Leung Nga-yan.
Zhuo Jinshen (left) and Zhou Yonglin (right)
Hu Aimin
“My Boss Will Provide Living Expenses”
The prosecutor stated that according to a cell phone taken by the police from Hu, he sent a WeChat message to his contact Ajie the night before the incident saying, “We will target all Falun Gong [practitioners] in Hong Kong tomorrow.” He also sent a text message saying, “If something happens to me, my boss will provide my living expenses.” Because these messages were sent before the incidents, the prosecutor believed Hu conducted the criminal damage intentionally, with a plan.
The lawyer who defended Hu acknowledged that the messages were from Hu’s cell phone. But he claimed they were irrelevant to this case and should not be included as evidence. The magistrate said the WeChat message would be considered evidence since it was related to Falun Gong. But the text message about his boss providing living expenses wasn’t used as evidence, because it did not mention Falun Gong.
Supportive Surveillance Video
The prosecutor also summoned officer Zhu (police ID 19546), a police detective from the Hong Kong West Kowloon Crime Squad. Zhu had repeatedly reviewed surveillance videos of the attacks at Wong Tai Sin and Mong Kok at low speeds.
Based on clothing and stature, he concluded that the same three people had committed crimes in both places. One person in white looked like Zhuo and one person in black had a similar appearance to Zhou. A third person wearing patterned clothing was taking video by the side and this person seemed to be Hu. The police also found the same clothes and utility knives in the defendants’ home, which may have been used to damage the exhibitions at the Falun Gong booths.
The court showed multiple surveillance videos to the witnesses. In the video, these three people committed the damages at Mong Kok, then walked away along Nathan Road, and went to the Ocean Super Seafood Restaurant to eat. Because of technical problems at the facility, the court could not show the video to the hearing attendees through the large screen in the room.
The prosecutor showed pictures to the witnesses, who recognized the three defendants. In the picture, Zhuo was wearing a T-shirt with a slogan from the CCP’s Wolf Warriors: “Chinese people don’t take this.” The prosecutor also showed several objects that the police found in the posession of the defendants, including clothes and a utility knife. Witnesses said the clothes were worn by the defendants and the knives were used to cut items at the booth.
The hearing adjourned at noon and the magistrate scheduled another hearing on April 4. Bail for the three defendants was renewed on existing conditions.
Repeated Harassment by CCP Agents
Since the CCP began to suppress Falun Gong in 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have been raising awareness of the brutalities at public places in Hong Kong. But pro-CCP agents have repeatedly harassed practitioners and attacked their informational booths. Within one week in April 2021, at least six Falun Gong booths in Hong Kong were attacked more than ten times. Police arrested eight people for attacking the booths at Mong Kok, Wong Tai Sin, Hung Hom, and Wan Chai.
Four defendants admitted to criminal damage and were detained for eight months. They are Peng Jiajun (construction worker, 41 years old), Yan Jiehao (unemployed, 27 years old), Wu Jiale (waiter, 33 years old), and Qiu Jialiang (unemployed, 36 years old). One person was not charged.
Hu, Zhou, and Zhuo did not admit to their crimes at first. Zhou later pleaded guilty after the trial started. Hu damaged Falun Gong booths on at least five occasions in December 2020. On December 1, 2022, he was sentenced to two weeks of detention with a probation of 30 months.
Background
Introduced by Mr. Li Hongzhi in 1992, Falun Gong consists of five sets of exercises and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. About 100 million people in China were estimated to be practicing Falun Gong by 1999.
Because the CCP’s ideology of hatred and brutality is incompatible with the traditional values advocated by Falun Gong, former CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched a massive suppression in July 1999. The regime then produced a massive campaign of defamatory propaganda against the practice. The brutalities perpetrated on Falun Gong practitioners include arrest, detention, imprisonment, torture, forced labor, and psychiatric abuse.
After the CCP’s crime of organ harvesting was exposed in 2006, the United Nations, governments around the world, and human rights activists have called for investigation and action. The United States House of Representatives passed H.R.1154 - Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023 on March 27, 2023 to hold CCP officials accountable for this crime.
Despite the persecution in China, Falun Gong has been well received in over 100 countries, receiving more than 3,000 proclamations from countries throughout the world. Zhuan Falun, the main teachings of Falun Gong, has been translated into over 50 languages. During the World Falun Dafa Day celebrations and also the 30th anniversary of Falun Gong’s public introduction in May 2022, more than 1,000 proclamations and letters of greeting were received from elected officials across the world.
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