(Minghui.org) Thirteen Weichang County, Hebei Province, residents were sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Liu Zhifeng was sentenced to six years and fined 10,000 yuan;Mr. Wang Guangxue was sentenced to five years and fined 10,000 yuan;Mr. Wang Yongxing and Ms. Wang Haiqin were each sentenced to four years and fined 10,000 yuan;Mr. Chen Haidong, Ms. Wang Sufang and Ms. Du Guilan were each sentenced to one year and eight months, and fined 5,000 yuan;Ms. Ge Sufen was sentenced to one year and six months, and fined 5,000 yuan;Ms. Li Yanhua was sentenced to one year and three months, with two years probation, and fined 5,000 yuan;and Ms. Liu Lina, Ms. Wang Haibing, Ms. Tang Fengxia, and Ms. Liu Fengxia were each sentenced to one year and two months, with two years’ probation, and fined 5,000 yuan.
The 13 practitioners were arrested on July 13, 2019, while studying Falun Gong’s teachings together. The police ransacked most of their homes the next day and confiscated their Falun Gong books, computers, and printers.
Although the Luanping County Procuratorate returned the practitioners’ cases to the police for insufficient evidence in November 2019, the police refused to release the practitioners and submitted their cases again a month later. The prosecutor indicted them on January 19, 2020, and moved their cases to the Luanping County Court.
The practitioners were tried on September 28, 2020, and convicted around October 30, 2020.
