(Minghui.org) Six Hengyang City, Hunan Province residents were sentenced to from two to seven years in prison in July 2022 for practicing Falun Gong. Two of them appealed the verdicts. The Hengyang City Intermediate Court ruled to uphold their original verdicts on March 21, 2023.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Chen Hengxiu, Mr. Peng Junnan, Ms. Zou Hongyan, Ms. Xie Haiyun, Ms. Li Fengying, and Ms. Jiang Xiuju were arrested on June 11-13, 2021. They were indicted by prosecutor Tang Canhui of the Shigu District Procuratorate on September 30, 2021.
Three lawyers entered not-guilty pleas for the six practitioners during their hearing by the Shigu District Court on December 22, 2021. The judge convicted all of them on July 1, 2022. Ms. Chen and Mr. Peng, who were sentenced to seven and four years respectively, appealed with the Hengyang City Intermediate Court, which recently rejected them.
The exact sentences of the other four practitioners remain to be investigated.
Ms. Chen Hengxiu’s Persecution
Ms. Chen, a 66-year-old retired railroad bureau employee, was arrested at home at 5 a.m. on June 13, 2021. Her Falun Gong books, photo of Falun Gong’s founder, computer, printer, as well as many office supplies, including scissors, laminator, paper cutter, envelopes, and plastic bags, were confiscated.
She was taken to the hospital for a comprehensive physical examination. As she refused to sign the relevant paperwork, the police became infuriated. They handcuffed her, tied her in a metal chair, and interrogated her. They played recordings of her phone calls with other practitioners and questioned her about them. The interrogation lasted until 3 a.m. and continued the next day. She was then released on bail.
Mr. Peng Junnan’s Persecution
Mr. Peng, an 80-year-old retired award-winning middle school teacher, took up Falun Gong in July 1998. Many of his long-term ailments, including neurosis, gastritis, and excessive growth of bone tissue, disappeared.
Since the onset of the persecution, Mr. Peng has endured relentless persecution, and previously served two labor camp terms.
Mr. Peng went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong and was arrested at Tiananmen Square on June 12, 2000. He was forced to wear three-foot-long shackles weighing over 20 pounds. The guards also force-fed him and beat him.
Mr. Peng was taken to the Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp to serve 1.5 years on September 29, 2000. He almost died from the torture and was released on September 12, 2001.
Mr. Peng was reported for talking to a teacher in his school about Falun Gong and arrested again on September 29, 2002. At the Hengyang County Detention Center, he was forced to work at least 13 hours a day without pay.
He was given another one-year labor camp term in the spring of 2003, but was rejected admission to the Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp due to his high blood pressure. The police didn’t release him immediately, but kept him in the detention center. Only when he fainted due to the high blood pressure on March 20, 2003, was he released.
Also in March 2003, the school forced Mr. Peng to retire, although he hadn’t reached retirement age.
Mr. Peng was arrested again on November 10, 2006 for talking to people about Falun Gong on a bus. He was given the third labor camp term of one year in December 2006 and taken to the Xinkaipu Labor Camp.
His next arrest was on April 29, 2012, also for talking to people about Falun Gong. He was released on the same day.
He was arrested a few more times, on November 8, 2017, March 4, 2018, May 5, 2019, March 10, 2020, August 24, 2020 and April 18, 2021, all for talking to people about Falun Gong. He was released on the same day after each arrest.
During the March 2018 arrest, the police tied him in a metal chair, and interrogated and beat him.
In addition to the arrests, the police harassed Mr. Peng on October 14, 2020. The police installed surveillance cameras facing Mr. Peng’s home on April 21, 2021, causing tremendous mental distress to him and his family.
Latest Arrest
A group of officers broke into Mr. Peng’s rental place on the morning of June 12, 2021 and raided his place. While Mr. Peng wasn’t home when the police came, they confiscated his Falun Gong books, related materials, printer, computer, cellphones, and some copy paper. The police arrested Mr. Peng when he returned at around 11 a.m. that morning. They attempted to detain him, but he was rejected admission to the detention center due to his age and high blood pressure.
The police, township government secretary, school district secretary, and residential committee director harassed Mr. Peng on September 16, 2021. His daughter, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, protested the persecution. The officers denied that they were harassing them. Seeing that Mr. Peng was indeed suffering some medical symptoms, they left not long after.
The police contacted Mr. Peng’s daughter ten days later and told her to tell her father to go to the hospital for a physical examination. When Mr. Peng did, prosecutor Tang of the Shigu District Procuratorate ordered him to sign a dozen forms for his indictment. When he refused to comply, Tang ordered his daughter to sign the paperwork on his behalf. The police videotaped the entire process.
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