(Minghui.org) Sixteen residents of Changchun City, Jilin Province are still awaiting verdicts after their hearing by the Lishu County Court on September 28, 2020, for their faith in Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
The presiding judge, Cui Ren, revealed that he didn’t have the authority to determine the verdicts, which will be decided by the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, an extra-judiciary agency tasked with persecuting Falun Gong.
Officials at the provincial level have instructed the prosecutors and judges not to take materials from the practitioners’ lawyers, who were strictly monitored when they traveled from out-of-town to attend the hearing in September.
The sixteen practitioners were arrested by over 100 officers in a police sweep on August 15, 2019. Among them, Mr. Li Changkun, 76, and Ms. Zhou Liping, 62, were later released on bail.
For the remaining fourteen practitioners, the male practitioners were recently transferred to Lishu County Detention Center and the female practitioners are still detained at the Siping City Detention Center.
The Lishu County Detention Center called the practitioners’ families on November 15, 2020 and asked them to make cash deposits. The detention center demanded that the practitioners buy everything inside and didn’t allow their families to send in clothes or other items to them.
The fourteen practitioners included Mr. Hou Hongqing, 49; Mr. Han Jianping, 58; Mr. Jiang Tao, 46; Mr. Tan Qiucheng, 44; Ms. Zhang Shaoping, 51; Ms. Cui Guixian, 56; Ms. Liu Dongying (who is the mother of Ms. Cui’s son-in-law), 55; and seven members from one extended family (Mr. Meng Xiangqi, 37, his father Mr. Meng Fanjun, 59, his mother-in-law Ms. Fu Guihua, 55, his sister-in-law Ms. Yu Jianli, 30, her husband Mr. Wang Dongji, 40, and Mr. Wang's parents Mr. Wang Kemin, 69, and Ms. Wang Fengzhi, 69).
Related reports:
Sixteen Jilin Residents Tried for Their Faith, Lawyers Barred From Representing Them in Court
Man Incarcerated and Tortured at 16 Again Faces Prosecution for His Belief
Sixteen Falun Gong Practitioners Targeted in a Group Arrest Face Trial for Their Faith
Fifteen Jilin Residents Remain in Detention After Prosecutor Returns Their Cases
Families Targeted in Mass Arrest in Jilin Province
Siping City, Jilin Province: 18 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested for Their Faith in One Day
Siping City, Jilin Province: Nine Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested for Their Faith in One Day
