Reported in May 2024: 71 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith
(Minghui.org) A total of 71 cases of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced for their faith were reported in May 2024.
The newly reported cases include 7 cases that took place in 2023, 52 in 2024 and 12 cases with unknown years of occurrence. The 2024 cases further broke down to 2 cases in January, 1 in February, 2 in March, 17 in April, 21 in May, as well as 9 cases with unknown months of occurrence. With ever stricter information censorship under the Chinese Communist Party, many details about the practitioners’ indictment, trial, and sentencing were difficult (if not impossible) to collect, which caused further delays in reporting.
The 71 sentenced Falun Gong practitioners came from 17 provinces and 3 centrally controlled municipalities. Liaoning and Hubei topped the list with 12 and 10 cases, respectively. The remaining 18 regions had single digit cases between 1 and 9. The practitioners’ terms ranged from 6 months to 8 years, with 7 practitioners receiving 5 years or more. The practitioner who was sentenced to eight years was also fined 40,000 yuan.
Thirty-four practitioners were 60 or older at the time of their sentencing, including 12 in their 60s, 20 in their 70s and 2 in their 80s. The two practitioners in their 80s were both from Guizhou Province and sentenced to 4.5 years.
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Several of the sentenced practitioners have lost their spouses due to the persecution. A married couple were also among the sentenced and the husband was struggling with some medical condition as a result of his hunger strike in protest of the detention. The two-year prison sentence of a single mother for distributing Falun Gong materials left her two teenage girls in a dire situation. The mother of a U.S. resident was beaten during her arrest and she has been jailed to serve an unknown term.
Some practitioners have already spent more than ten years behind bars before their latest prison sentence. This includes a 53-year-old man who was given another six years, after having served three prison sentences totaling 12.5 years, and a fast food worker who was sentenced to three years after serving a prior ten-year term.
A Beijing resident in her 70s had a heart attack and elevated blood pressure after bring interrogated for a whole night without being allowed to have any sleep. She was allowed to serve the 3.5-year term outside of prison due to her physical condition.
A food vendor in her 50s from Jiangxi Province was arrested while taking a walk in the park. She stood trial in November 2023. The judge ordered her to plead guilty to practicing Falun Gong. She refused to comply and was sentenced to 1.5 years.
The following are details of select sentencing cases. The full list of sentenced practitioners can be downloaded here (PDF).
Sentencing of Mothers
Mother of U.S. Resident Jailed for Her Faith in Falun Gong
Ms. Meng Zhaohong was admitted to a prison in Hebei Province on January 15, 2024 for her faith in Falun Gong. Her daughter, Ms. Ding Yue, who currently resides in California, called on the communist regime to immediately release her mother.
Ms. Ding Yue and her husband called for the release of her mother Ms. Meng Zhaohong.
Ms. Meng, a 66-year-old retired nurse in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, was arrested on May 9, 2023 for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police took her to a dark, damp basement in the police department and interrogated her. An officer slapped her in the face for more than 20 times, resulting in lasting pain in her neck and ear.
The police ordered Ms. Meng to hold a bag containing Falun Gong books and have her picture taken. She refused to give them any chance to fabricate evidence against her.
The police later took Ms. Meng to the Qinhuangdao City Police Hospital for a physical examination. She was found to have tuberculosis and coronary artery sclerosis. As the local detention facilities refused to admit her based on her exam result, the police took her back to the hospital, where she remained before being transferred to the Shijiazhuang Women’s Prison on January 15, 2024 to serve an unknown term.
According to an insider, Ms. Meng demanded to file a motion to reconsider her case in the prison. When her lawyer visited her on April 29, 2024, the two-hour meeting was closely monitored by two prison guards, who also took photos of the motion the lawyer had prepared. Upon seeing one sentence that said Ms. Meng was unfit for incarceration, the guards claimed that she was perfectly healthy and had no illness. Ms. Meng also prepared a motion herself, but the guard didn’t allow her to use that version.
The authorities also suspended Ms. Meng’s pension, with the excuse that she failed to turn in her annual renewal paperwork.
Single Mother of Two Daughters Sentenced to Two Years
The family of a Tianjin resident recently learned that their loved one has been sentenced to two years in 2023. Ms. Liang Hui divorced years ago and was given the custody of her two daughters. Her incarceration left the two teenage girls in a dire situation.
Ms. Liang first read Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, in September 2020 and found answers to many questions she had about life. She decided to practice Falun Gong in October 2021.
To raise awareness about the persecution, she distributed informational materials in her neighborhood, but was arrested on March 26, 2023. Her family contacted several lawyers, but all of them refused to take up the case, citing an internal notice from the communist regime that no lawyers were allowed to represent Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Liang’s family learned in early May 2024 that she was sentenced to two years and has been taken to the Tianjin Women’s Prison sometime in 2023.
Persecution of Families
Mr. Chen Deguang, a 78-year-old resident of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was arrested on March 20, 2023 and sentenced to three years and eight months in early April 2024.
Mr. Chen Deguang
This was not the first time that Mr. Chen, a retiree of the now-defunct No. 4 Metallurgical Construction Co., has been targeted for his faith. He and his wife, Ms. Sheng Chunmei, also a Falun Gong practitioner, were repeatedly arrested over the years. In particular, both were sentenced to nine years following their arrests in July 2011.
Ms. Sheng’s health deteriorated as a result of being tortured at the Gansu Province Women’s Prison. She suffered gallbladder infection, hypertension, and diabetes. The prison didn’t release her until she was on the verge of death. She passed away on October 12, 2017, seven weeks after her release. She was 65 years old.
Mr. Chen was also subjected to horrific torture at the Lanzhou Prison. After being released on July 6, 2020, he found out that his pension had been unlawfully revoked since 2012 (the second year into his imprisonment). Not only did the local social security bureau refuse to reinstate his pension, they also asked his daughter to pass on the message that he had to return the pension issued to him between July 2011 (when he was arrested) and 2012 (when the pension stopped). It was unclear whether he complied.
Ms. Wang Yonghua’s family confirmed on April 20, 2024 that the Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province resident has been sentenced to three years for practicing Falun Gong. According to her lawyer, she is suffering from a medical condition due to abuse in the detention center and she is unable to walk on her own.
This is the second time that Ms. Wang has been sentenced for her faith, following a previous 3.5-year prison term. Her husband, also a Falun Gong practitioner, died in 2017, five years after he completed a four-year term during which he endured relentless torture.
Following Ms. Wang’s latest arrest in July 2023, her daughter, Ming (alias), who grew up witnessing her parents being persecuted, faced frequent police harassment. The police also forced the media company she worked for to fire her.
Ming booked a trip to Beijing on March 22, 2024. After she purchased the train ticket, the police called her and demanded that she cancel the trip. She complied. When she was trying to buy another ticket on April 22, she was still told that she wasn’t allowed to go to Beijing, due to the upcoming anniversary of the historic April 25 appeal. The police said that she was on travel restriction and must obtain their approval before traveling to Beijing. Ming managed to get the police to allow her to travel to Beijing but they insisted that she return that same day. On the day of her travel, she was stopped by a security officer at the train station and her bag was searched.
Ming later booked a vacation to South Korea. She spent tens of thousands of yuan on the hotel and flight tickets, but the customs officers stopped her and her daughter from boarding the flight and said the police ordered her to report to them immediately. She went to the police station and the police said they had listed her as a “sensitive individual” and put her under “close surveillance.” She wasn’t allowed to travel out of town without their permission, much less leave the country. The police also threatened to force her husband’s employer to fire him.
Mr. Zhang Deguo, a resident of Linghai City, Liaoning Province, was recently admitted to Jinzhou Prison to serve a 1.5-year term.
Mr. Zhang Deguo
Mr. Zhang, 74, was arrested on December 5, 2023 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police raided his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books and other personal items.
When Mr. Zhang’s son applied to be his non-lawyer family defender, the procuratorate and court denied his request, claiming that he couldn’t prove his relationship to Mr. Zhang.
The family was unable to hire a lawyer for Mr. Zhang, so they were left in the dark regarding the status of his case. His son only confirmed recently that Mr. Zhang had been transferred to Jinzhou Prison, but he knows nothing about his indictment, trial, sentencing, or when he was transferred to prison.
Prior to this latest sentence, Mr. Zhang had already served two labor camp terms and been brutally tortured. His wife Ms. Li Jinqiu, their son Mr. Zhang Lei and his wife Ms. Zhao Xiaochun, and her mother Ms. He Yuxiang have all been persecuted for their shared faith.
Just months before Mr. Zhang’s own arrest, his wife Ms. Li, 73, was seized by the police on July 31, 2023, for distributing Falun Gong materials at a community fair. She was sentenced to four years with an 8,000-yuan fine on November 13, 2023.
Arbitrary Arrests and Sentencing
71-Year-Old Woman Roughed Up, Jailed for Talking to People about Falun Gong
A 71-year-old woman in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, has been admitted to Hunan Province Women’s Prison to serve a one-year term for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Luo Fenghua was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong on June 27, 2023. She was arrested as she was about to check out at a supermarket and taken to the police station, where the four people who reported her were also present.
Without showing an arrest warrant or any identification, the police detained Ms. Luo in the station for eight hours before transferring her to the local lockup at around 11 p.m. Six officers handcuffed her so roughly that a piece of flesh nearly two inches long was torn off her left thumb. The police offered no treatment for her bleeding finger and detained her in a cold, dark room overnight.
At 10 a.m. the next day, freezing and starving, Ms. Luo was taken to the hospital for a physical exam. She refused to cooperate, so the police falsified reports of her exam. By the time she was taken to the detention center around 4:30 p.m., she hadn’t eaten for over 40 hours and was so weak that the police had to find her a wheelchair.
The police confiscated 320 yuan in paper bills with information about Falun Gong printed on them from Ms. Luo. Printing messages on banknotes is one creative way that Falun Gong practitioners use to raise awareness about the persecution. The banknotes were later used as evidence against her.
Ms. Luo was held in the lockup for four months and 12 days and lost over 22 pounds during that time.
Ms. Luo developed acute pancreatitis on October 28. When she was hospitalized for the treatment, the guards kept her shackled to the bed. They wouldn’t remove the shackles even when she went to the bathroom. The shackles rubbed against her heels, causing them to bleed.
On November 17, the police put her in a police car, still handcuffed and shackled, and drove her for over an hour to the Liuyang City Court.
At the courthouse, Ms. Luo was confused and didn’t get out of the car immediately. An officer in his 20s shouted at her three times, “Are you getting out or not?” Before she could respond, he dragged her out of the car and then all the way into the courthouse before throwing her into a chair in a small room. Her feet rubbed against the ground and her top was lifted and wrapped around her head, making it difficult for her to breathe. Her upper body was also completely exposed.
When Ms. Luo refused to enter the courtroom, the judges and clerk went to the little room and announced that she was sentenced to 12 months with 15 months probation and a 10,000-yuan fine. Her “crime” was “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners.
When Ms. Luo filed an appeal on December 22, the police and justice bureau harassed and threatened her that they would take her back into custody. A court official went with her lawyer to her home on December 28, 2023. Because she wasn’t there, they forced her son to sign the letter to withdraw her appeal. She was taken to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison, even though she wasn’t originally required to serve time in prison given her probation.
Shanxi Woman Sentenced to Two Years in Prison Over Non-existing Witness Accounts
More than ten police officers in Yangquan City, Shanxi Province broke into Mr. Wang Zhongming’s workplace at 11 a.m. on October 19, 2023 and asked if he posted a Falun Gong-related video online from his cell phone. He acknowledged that the video was posted from his phone but said he did not remember posting the video himself.
The police took Mr. Wang, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, to his home. They snatched his key and opened the door. His wife, Ms. Li Guilin, happened to be home and was arrested on the spot. The police confiscated her computer, printer, Falun Gong books, and informational materials.
Ms. Li appeared in the Pingding County Court on March 27, 2024. Her lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for her. He said that the prosecutor failed to present any evidence showing how Ms. Li had violated the law or caused harm to anyone. Her practicing Falun Gong was merely her personal belief, and her telling others about it also did not harm anyone.
The lawyer added that no law in China has ever criminalized Falun Gong. The General Administration of Press and Publication has long since lifted the ban on Falun Gong publications, in 2011.
Unable to refute the lawyer, the prosecutor claimed that Ms. Li’s cellphone retained the record of her sending Falun Gong videos and articles written by Falun Gong’s founder to seven people, including her daughter, a community worker, and five other people with unknown identities. Yet except Ms. Li’s daughter and the community worker, all other “witnesses” said they had no recollection of Ms. Li sharing the said videos with them.
The judge didn’t announce the verdict at the end of the hearing, but sentenced Ms. Li to a two-year prison term weeks later.