Seven Practitioners Sentenced to Prison (Chicheng County, Hebei Province)

(Clearwisdom.net) On April 21, 2007, Xu Haibin, an official from Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party's Prevention Office, went to the Dahaituo area of Chicheng County to sightsee. He saw posters reading "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Heaven Eliminates the Chinese Communist Party" put up on power poles. He became upset and started exerting pressure on province, city and county level officials.

The police department arrested seven practitioners from Chicheng County, Ms. Chen Haiyan, Ms. Lin Cuilian, Mr. Zhao Bingheng, Ms. Wang Yufeng, Ms. Wang Yuzhen, Mr. Wang Yuhai and Ms. Guo Xiulin. Later, they cooked up the charges of "Subversion of state power" and reported it to the procuratorate for their arrest warrants.

On June 3, 2007, the Chicheng County Procuratorate issued arrest warrants, charging the practitioners with "Subversion of state power". The Zhangjiakou City Procuratorate filed the lawsuit to the Zhangjiakou City Intermediate Court, but the court concluded that the charges were groundless, and the case was returned to the Chicheng County Court. On October 28, 2008, the lawsuit was filed against the practitioners in the Chicheng County Court with charge of "organizing and utilizing an evil cult to damage the laws implementation". The same case was filed three times with different charges; however, all of these charges were false.

On April 4, 2008, Chicheng County Court delivered a verdict for the seven practitioners. Among them, Ms. Chen Haiyan, Ms. Lin Cuilian were sentenced to five years in prison, Mr. Zhao Bingheng, Ms. Wang Yufeng and Ms. Wang Yuzhen were sentenced to four years in prison, Mr. Wang Yuhai was sentenced to three years in prison. Ms. Gui Xiulin was sentenced to three years in prison and the sentence was suspended, to be implemented in four years. Ms. Guo was released. Except for Ms. Guo, all other six practitioners refused to accept their sentences and appealed the courts decisions. The families of five practitioners hired defense lawyers for them (six of them read statements of innocence on behalf of their clients).

Mr. Wang Yuhai, Ms. Wang Yufeng and Ms. Wang Yuzhen are brother and sisters. After the news of their sentences came out, their parents, who are both in their eighties, were in tears every day. Ms. Cheng Haiyan and Mr. Zhao Bingheng are wife and husband. On the day of their arrests, their home was ransacked. Their computer, TV, receiver and other personal belongings were confiscated. Their new van for their taxi business was confiscated as "a tool used to commit the crime." On the same day, several police officers broke into Ms. Chen Haiyan's parents' home. Her father, 75 years old, was very frightened and became ill. He is still bedridden now. Her mother, in her seventies, worried about their daughter's health every day since Ms. Chen used to have leukemia and was cured after practicing Falun Gong. She went around and tried to seek help for her daughter's early release.

April 16, 2008

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/4/17/176654.html

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