(Minghui.org) In any free country, people can share videos with friends on social media without worrying about any consequences. But for doing so in communist China, one may be imprisoned.
On April 29, 2021, a Yongtai County, Fujian Province resident stood trial after the police found two video links on her iPad that she had sent to her friends about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
A Prior Arrest
Ms. Guo Xiuhai, a 58-year-old retired employee of the Yongtai County Health Bureau, was reported on February 11, 2020, for talking to two young people about Falun Gong. A dozen police officers broke into her home in the evening and confiscated her Falun Gong books, cellphone, computer, two iPads, and a thumb-drive. Both Ms. Guo and her husband were taken to the police station for interrogation. While her husband was soon released, Ms. Guo was detained for 15 days. The police returned her cellphone but kept all other confiscated items.
Latest Arrest
The police stopped Ms. Guo’s husband in his subdivision on his way to work at around 7 a.m. on July 15, 2020. They forced him to return to his home and open the door for them. The police searched his residence again and arrested him and his wife. He was released a day later and Ms. Guo was taken to the Minqing County Detention Center. Three days later, she was transferred to the Fuzhou City No.2 Detention Center, where she has been held since. The Yongtai County Procuratorate approved her arrest two weeks later on July 29.
Because Ms. Guo refused to do the roll call or recite detention rules, the guards forced her to stand for two hours every night. She developed high blood pressure and had tightness in her chest and was short of breath.
Her family hired a lawyer to represent her on September 12, 2020, and the lawyer visited her on that day.
Prosecution
The police arrested Ms. Guo again in July 2020 upon finding on her iPad links to introductory videos about Falun Gong that she had sent to her two friends in her WeChat account.
Ms. Guo’s lawyer and family members found the police officers in charge of Ms. Guo’s case and submitted the lawyer’s legal opinion about the case. The lawyer explained that since no law criminalizes Falun Gong in China, it’s completely fine for his client to spread information about Falun Gong through videos. The police officer responded that he was just following an order from the Domestic Security Division and he couldn’t make any decision about the case. The lawyer and Ms. Guo’s family then rushed to the Domestic Security Division, but the officers had already taken off for the day when they arrived.
The police submitted Ms. Guo’s case to the Changle County Procuratorate in early October 2020. She was indicted on November 20 and had her case forwarded to the Changle County Court. The prosecutor charged her with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” a standard pretext used by the Chinese authorities to frame Falun Gong practitioners.
The lawyer went to the court in January 2021 to submit documents for the case. Judge Chen Jian refused to accept it and withheld his professional license.
The judge informed the lawyer in April that a video hearing was scheduled for April 29. Both the lawyer and Ms. Guo insisted on having a hearing in person, but the judge refused to accommodate their request.
To better defend Ms. Guo, her family hired another lawyer for her. The second lawyer also submitted a request to have an in-person hearing, but the judge rejected him as well.
During the hearing on April 29, only two family members of Ms. Guo’s were allowed to attend. A third family member went to the court but was driven out by the bailiffs.
The lawyers argued that no law criminalizes Falun Gong in China and that the prosecutor didn’t provide any evidence of how law enforcement was allegedly undermined by Ms. Guo. Sending the links isn’t a crime, the lawyers said.
The lawyers continued to say that Falun Gong doesn’t have membership lists and isn’t a cult. The practitioners’ efforts to spread information about Falun Gong are their personal choices and not organized by anyone.
Ms. Guo also testified in her own defense. She said that everything she has told people about Falun Gong are the facts. It’s only because the Chinese Communist Party is doing everything to block and filter information that she has to spread the facts about it and to allow people to think for themselves. She emphasized that the Chinese Constitution protects one’s freedom of speech and religious belief, and she didn’t violate any law in her efforts.
Ms. Guo added that after she took up Falun Gong in 1997, her Hepatitis B disappeared. Her family members also enjoyed health improvement when they did the practice themselves. She demanded her acquittal.
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