(Minghui.org) A 70-year-old Faku County, Liaoning Province, resident was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison with a 20,000-yuan fine on August 22, 2024, for sharing videos on Kuaishou, a popular short-form video platform in China.
Mr. Guan Chenglin
Mr. Guan Chenglin’s arrest was triggered by an investigation of a local Falun Gong practitioner, Song Hongman (gender unknown), who was accused of posting Falun Gong videos on Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) and Kuaishou. Police departments in Shenyang City (in Liaoning Province), Zhengzhou City (in Henan Province), and Xianyang City (in Shaanxi Province), were involved in the investigation.
The police discovered Mr. Guan’s information from Song’s account and noticed that he reposted some videos in his Kuaishou account. The Shenyang City Police Department shared the findings with its subordinate Faku County Police Department, which then instructed the Xiushuihe Police Station to arrest Mr. Guan on August 29, 2023. He was given criminal detention at the Faku County Detention Center.
The Liaozhong District Procuratorate in Shenyang City announced on September 28, 2023 to not issue a formal arrest warrant for Mr. Guan. He was then released under house arrest that day.
Officers Ma Tianlong and Guo Xiaoliang from the Xiushuihe Police Station visited Mr. Guan separately, on December 25, 2023 and February 26, 2024, demanding that he cooperate with them in verifying the two cell phones he had and the Kuaishou account he used to repost videos.
The Faku County Police Department submitted the case to the Xinmin City Procuratorate on March 27, 2024. Prosecutor Wang Hao indicted him on June 3, 2024, accusing him of reposting Falun Gong videos between 2022 and 2023. Wang recommended a 7-8 years prison sentence and a fine.
Mr. Guan was taken back into custody on July 10, 2024 and sent to the Xinmin City Detention Center. He stood trial at the Xinmin City Court on July 30, 2024.
Prosecutor Wang only presented photos of Mr. Guan’s Kuaishou account and a chart showing how many videos he reposted on Kuaishou and how many views on each video. Mr. Guan and his two non-lawyer defenders challenged prosecutor Wang to play the videos in court in order to determine whether they indeed undermined law enforcement or caused harm to anyone. Both Wang and presiding judge Lin Shujing denied the request.
Mr. Guan expressed his doubts about the exact number of videos he allegedly reposted as the police confiscated his phone and there was no verification of the amount of prosecution evidence against him.
He added that he did not know how to create and edit videos himself. All the videos he reposted were recommended by Kuaishou. Most of the videos had nothing to do with Falun Gong, but about prophecies, reincarnation stories, legends, and poems that advised people to be good. Even the few Falun Gong videos he reposted were totally legal, because no law criminalizes Falun Gong.
The judge announced on August 22 to sentence Mr. Guan to 7.5 years with a 20,000-yuan fine. After his defender helped him draft the appeal, the detention center guards initially rejected his visitation request. When the guards later approved the visitation, they demanded that the entire conversation between Mr. Guan and the defender be monitored and Mr. Guan wouldn’t be allowed to sign the appeal during the meeting.
To better seek justice for Mr. Guan, the family hired a lawyer to visit him. According to the lawyer who was allowed to visit Mr. Guan nearly two weeks later in mid-September, he is now in good spirits. He had signed the appeal, but the guard Chen Jun didn’t leave a copy for him or even allow him to read it. The lawyer told him that the appeal had been accepted by the intermediate court and judge Kong Xianglai had been assigned to it.
Mr. Guan told the lawyer that although the authorities had been trying to press him to renounce Falun Gong by promising a lighter sentence, he wouldn’t accept it under any circumstances. He thanked his family for everything they did for him. He believed that the darkness would eventually go away and he would be able to freely practice Falun Gong in the near future.
Mr. Guan took up Falun Gong in 1997 and soon recovered from the many ailments he had. After the persecution started in 1999, he was arrested by officers of the Faku County Police Department and held at a brainwashing center for three months.
Related Report:
70-Year-Old Liaoning Man Stands Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
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