China jails Falungong leaders for printing books and posters (AFP:1/6/00)
BEIJING, Jan 6 (AFP) - China on Thursday sentenced a husband and wife to six and eight years in prison for printing millions of Falungong books and posters, a court official said.
Wang Hansheng and his wife Xu Xianglan were sentenced by the Wuhan City
Intermediate People's Court in the central province of Hubei, an official
at the court told AFP.
She said one other Falungong member was sentenced along with the couple,
but refused to provide details other than the person was surnamed Zhu.
Xu, charged with "using an evil religion to sabotage the implementation
of laws," received a heavier sentence than her husband because she was
also chief of the Wuhan Falungong training station, the Hong Kong-based
Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
Wang was charged with "setting up and using an evil religious organization
to print material."
They are accused of publishing five million volumes of Falungong books
from July 1996 to April 1999, and 1.3 million posters, raking in a profit
of 10 million dollars, the information centre quoted the court as saying.
State media reported it was the biggest collection of Falungong material
and said the couple, who managed the printing company Shenshen Group in
Wuhan, also made 580,000 video products and more than 40,000 practitioners
uniforms, earning a combined profit of 27 million yuan.
Xu and Wang were sentenced Thursday following a secret trial on December
23.
The information centre said the couple did nothing illegal.
"Selling products for a profit is the standard practice of any business,"
the centre said in a statement.
China has deemed the publishing and distribution of any material related
to Falungong to be illegal since it banned the group in July.
Products from Shenshen Group were sold in 80 cities and counties within
26 provinces and municipalities in China, state media had said.
Reports had also said Falungong founder Li Hongzhi plotted with Wang to
"ruthlessly gain profits" from the business, but the information centre
said no evidence was mentioned in court of Li's involvement.
Li lives in New York and is wanted by the Chinese government which has
accused his group of causing the deaths of at least 1,400 people by convincing
them they could cure illnesses without seeking medical care by practicing
his teachings.
Falungong -- a spiritual movement based on teachings of Buddhist meditation
and high moral values -- has been under attack by the Chinese government
since 10,000 members protested in Beijing last April against the arrest
of members.
More than 36,000 members have been detained since then. Most of them have
been released but thousands are believed to have been sent to labour camps
while many group leaders have been sent to prison for more than 10 years.
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