(Minghui.org) Mr. Feng Jingyou, a 70-year-old Ningxiang City, Hunan Province, resident was sentenced to one year on March 8, 2024 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. He is in the process of filing an appeal.
Mr. Feng was initially arrested on March 12, 2023 and released ten days later. He was taken back into custody on April 24 that year and released on bail on May 23. He filed a complaint against the police, only to be arrested on December 19, 2023 and convicted months later.
Mr. Feng was stopped by Zeng Xu, the deputy chief of the Xiaduopu Township Police Station, and his subordinates as soon as he stepped out of the door on March 12, 2023. The police handcuffed Mr. Feng, searched him, and raided his home, without presenting their police IDs, search warrant or other legal documents.
While interrogating Mr. Feng at the police station, the police said they targeted him because someone reported him for talking to people about Falun Gong. Mr. Feng explained that he broke no law in practicing or sharing information about Falun Gong. When the police ordered him to sign and fingerprint the interrogation records, he pointed out that they included things that he never said or did. He refused to acknowledge their claims by signing the fabricated evidence against him. The police still gave him ten days of detention based on the unsigned, fabricated interrogation records.
After Mr. Feng was released ten days later, Zeng and a few officers broke into his home again on April 24, 2023 and forcibly took him to the Ningxiang City Detention Center. Mr. Feng insisted that he didn’t violate any law in practicing Falun Gong. The police again fabricated the interrogation record and put him in criminal detention, without getting his signature or fingerprint on the document.
The police later submitted Mr. Feng’s case to the Ningxiang City Procuratorate, accusing him of undermining law enforcement with a “cult organization,” the standard pretext used by the communist regime to frame Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Feng was released on bail on May 23, 2023.
Mr. Feng knew that he didn’t do anything wrong in practicing Falun Gong and shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place. He filed a complaint with the Ningxiang City Procuratorate on December 18, 2023, accusing Zeng and his subordinates of abusing their power, trespassing and illegally searching his private residence.
The prosecutor returned Mr. Feng’s complaint asking for additional materials, including his detention notice. He requested it from the police, but they refused to give it to him and even threatened him.
Mr. Feng went to the local petition office to submit his complaint against the police on December 19, 2023, only to be arrested there by officers from the Ningxiang City 610 Office, the Ningxiang City Domestic Security Office, and the Xiaduopu Township Police Station.
On the same day, officers of the Xiaduopu Township Police Station submitted his case to the Wangcheng District Procuratorate, which immediately approved his arrest. The prosecutor indicted him and forwarded his case to the Wangcheng District Court on January 17, 2024.
The court heard Mr. Feng’s case on March 8, 2024. His lawyer entered a not guilty plea for him. He was sentenced to one year and fined 5,000 yuan. He is now preparing to appeal the verdict.
This wasn’t the first time that Mr. Feng was targeted for practicing Falun Gong. He was harassed by the police in 2017 and arrested on April 12, 2019 for talking to people about Falun Gong, resulting in a 15-day detention.