Pan Kaixiang is an associate professor at Zhejiang University. He is in his 30s and holds a master's degree in psychology. Dr. Pan is beloved by his students and has received several awards for excellence in teaching. The Xihu District Court in the city of Hangzhou has announced that he will be sentenced to prison next Monday afternoon (June 18) for simply being a Falun Gong practitioner.
Professor Pan has done his best to put the welfare of other people before his own from the moment he started to practice Falun Gong, and all his colleagues and students think highly of him. Because he began to practice Falun Gong relatively early, the police viewed him as one of the "organizers" of the local Falun Gong assistance center and arrested him at the end of 1999. After he was released in April or May of 2000, certain vicious people continued to use every imaginable method to persecute him. He was finally arrested again at the end of 2000. His friends and family members struggled to find ways to file appeals on his behalf, but they have gotten nowhere. His family received no news about him until several days ago, when the district court sent them a notice indicating that a "trial" date was set for him the following Monday. The family hired a lawyer to prepare his defense. However, while preparing for his case, the lawyer received a "notice" from the "higher authorities" and suddenly withdrew from the case.
Practitioner Zhu Jianmin is a former assistant at the Hangzhou Falun Gong Assistance Center. He, his mother and his mother-in-law were all arrested for practicing Falun Gong. Even his father-in-law and two aunts, who are not Falun Gong practitioners, have been arrested because of their kinship to him. He has remained in police custody since he was arrested in 1999 while his wife was several months pregnant.
Another Hangzhou practitioner, Jin Lihua, will be "tried" and sentenced in court on June 20 (he was supposedly arrested at the end of last year for distributing Falun Gong material). All kind-hearted people, please unite and stop the persecution of these kind practitioners. To all the Falun Gong practitioners who happen to read this piece of news, let us send forth our righteous thoughts together and bring retribution to the evil people for their bad deeds.