(Minghui.org) Mr. Chen Shuang from Xianning City in Hubei Province was arrested in Shenzhen City for putting up posters with information about Falun Gong. He was sentenced to a seven-year prison term.
Mr. Chen accepted a job in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province in March 2017. He was arrested in his factory's dormitory on June 4.
The factory owner went to the police station to inquire about Mr. Chen's whereabouts but the police would not tell him anything. It was later learned that he had been taken to the Longgang District Detention Center.
Mr. Chen's family hired a lawyer, but the lawyer was afraid of being persecuted, so he asked the court to allow Mr. Chen's family members to argue for him during the trial. The lawyer mailed the necessary documents to the local Procuratorate and the court where the family lived.
The court refused the request, claiming that the family members were not qualified since they had previously been incarcerated in labor camps for practicing Falun Gong.
Mr. Chen's first hearing was held in the Longgang Court in Shenzhen on January 26, 2018.
During the hearing, the prosecutor did not mention what law Mr. Chen had violated. He also did not try to prosecute him under the commonly cited Article 300 of the Criminal Law, (using a cult organization to undermine enforcement of the law) as other prosecutors had done in the past.
When the judge asked Mr. Chen, the lawyer, and the prosecutor to make their final statements. Mr. Chen said that he was not guilty. The lawyer said that his client was not guilty. The prosecutor said that he had nothing to say. The hearing concluded without reaching a verdict.
Mr. Chen appeared in court again on June 11, 2018. The court recently notified the lawyer that Mr. Chen had been sentenced to seven years in prison.
