(Minghui.org) The Dongying City Intermediate Court in Shandong Province ruled on September 10, 2025, to uphold the wrongful convictions of three Shandong residents for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The three Falun Gong practitioners were arrested on November 29, 2023, and sentenced on May 26, 2025. Ms. Wang Fan, 50, was given four years and fined 30,000 yuan. Her husband, Mr. Du Jianxin, 51, and Mr. Fu Jian, around 47, each received three and a half years with a 20,000-yuan fine.
All three practitioners appealed the verdicts but lost. Around October 20, 2025, Ms. Wang was admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison and Mr. Du and Mr. Fu to the Shandong Province Prison.
Minghui.org has previously reported on the three practitioners’ arrests and prosecution (refer to the related reports). Below is additional information.
More About the Arrests
According to insiders, the police established a special task force on March 20, 2022, to monitor Ms. Wang, Mr. Du, Mr. Fu, and Mr. Zhang Aiquan (another local Falun Gong practitioner). The four practitioners were eventually arrested on November 29, 2023, along with at least 17 other practitioners.
Ms. Wang was arrested at around 8 a.m. as soon as she stepped out of her apartment building. The police, who had been staked outside, raided her home and seized her husband Mr. Du as well. The home raid lasted until the afternoon. The police confiscated the couple’s Falun Gong books, portrait of the founder of Falun Gong, a computer, printer, and even plastic bags and elastic bands.
Mr. Fu was arrested at one of his rental apartments at around the same time. The police raided his other rental property also and confiscated his Falun Gong books, portrait of Falun Gong’s founder, a printer, laptop, paper cutter, cell phone, satellite dish, notebooks, paper slips, and other belongings. They also impounded his truck and motorcycle.
More About the Trial
Before convicting the three practitioners, the Dongying District Court in Dongying City held four hearings, on July 3, October 16 and 21, 2024, and on May 19, 2025.
During the trial, prosecutor Zhao Peng of the Dongying District Procuratorate accused the practitioners of violating Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which stipulates that those using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The practitioners and their defense lawyers argued that China’s law-making body, the People’s Congress, never enacted any law to criminalize Falun Gong or label it as a cult. As such, the accusation against the practitioners lacked any legal basis. Additionally, they argued that the practitioners didn’t do anything to cause any harm to any individual or society at large, much less undermine law enforcment.
Ms. Wang and Mr. Du’s non-lawyer defender also provided government documents that showed that Falun Gong was never on the cult list jointly issued by the State Department and the Ministry of Public Security and that the ban on Falun Gong publications had long been lifted in 2011. Judge Liu Nan, however, ignored this information.
Mr. Fu’s lawyer also testified against the police for breaking the law. The case against Mr. Fu was established on March 30, 2022, but the police started investigating him three days prior. The raid of his two rental properties was done without his presence. The police did not produce any search warrant or issue him a list of confiscated items as required by law. There was also no witness to the raid. During the interrogation, three or four officers grabbed Mr. Fu’s hand to press his fingerprint on the interrogation records after he refused to sign.
Mr. Du’s lawyer pointed out that the Binhai Police Department’s Domestic Security Office was listed as the agency that examined and verified the prosecution evidence. However, by law, only an independent, third-party agency is authorized to authenticate prosecution evidence. The Domestic Security Office, however, is the supervising agency of the Binnan Police Department that arrested him, his wife, and Mr. Fu.
One piece of prosecution evidence was the three practitioners’ installation of satellite dishes to receive uncensored overseas news. Mr. Fu’s lawyer stated that no law bans its citizens from installing satellite dishes.
The items confiscated from the three practitioners’ homes were used as prosecution evidence against them, but judge Liu did not allow any of them to be presented in court as part of the cross-examination process. He sentenced the practitioners on May 26, 2025.
Related Reports:
Three Shandong Residents, Including a Married Couple, Sentenced for Practicing Falun Gong
Dongying City, Shandong Province: 18 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day
Young Couple from Shandong Province Suffer Years of Severe Persecution
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