(Minghui.org) A 58-year-old resident of Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was recently sentenced to four and a half years for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Zhang Huiqiang, who once worked as an engineer at the Fushun Ethylene Chemical Factory, was arrested on October 21, 2024, and stood trial on March 6, 2025. It is unclear when exactly he was convicted. He is now appealing with the Shenyang City Intermediate Court. Prior to his latest prison sentence, he served a five-year term, also for practicing Falun Gong.
Trial
The Dadong District Court tried Mr. Zhang in the Dadong District Detention Center on March 6, 2025. Prosecutor Yang Yuqiu alleged that he broke the law by “distributing calendars with Falun Gong messages at a cell phone repair shop and a coffee shop, as well as spending paper currency with Falun Gong messages printed on the bills.”
Mr. Zhang argued that, since no law in China deems Falun Gong a crime, he did not violate any law. Presiding judge Zhu Lina interrupted him repeatedly.
Prosecutor Yang claimed that a man named Su Bin “witnessed” the police raid Mr. Zhang’s home. His lawyer replied that he watched the police cam video in its entirety and did not see anyone named Su Bin in it. By law, police raids must be witnessed by an independent, third party. If not, the items confiscated cannot be used as evidence to charge the suspect.
Judge Zhu, however, insisted that there was a Su Bin in the police video and that she saw a photo of Su Bin in the police-supplied evidence.
Mr. Zhang’s daughter, who served as his non-lawyer defender, testified against the police for extorting confessions from her mother.
On the day of Mr. Zhang’s arrest, October 21, 2024, his wife noticed that the police ripped off every page of a calendar with information about Falun Gong and claimed each page was a separate piece of “evidence.” When she condemned them for fabricating evidence against her husband, they threatened to arrest her. They also seized several blank flash drives and ripped off an old decoration with the word “Fu” (“good fortune” in Chinese) on it.
The police didn’t allow Mr. Zhang’s wife to verify the confiscated items nor did they issue her a list of the items as required by law. They took her to the Dongzhou Police Station, where officer Yu Bing asked where she and her husband got the calendar. She said she didn’t know because she did not bring it home. Yu responded, “If it wasn’t you, then it was your husband.” Before she realized they were trying to get her to incriminate her husband, Yu and another officer ordered her to sign the interrogation record. When they did not let her read it, she hesitated until they threatened to target her daughter. Under pressure, she signed her name.
Mr. Zhang’s daughter argued that the “testimonies provided” by her mother against her father were thus inadmissible, especially given that her mother had written to prosecutor Yang and judge Zhu two days before the trial to nullify what she was forced to say during her interrogation.
Mr. Zhang’s daughter also pointed out that the cell phone repair shop did not identify her father from the store’s surveillance videos until December 9, 2024, yet the police had already spelled out Mr. Zhang’s name in their case receipt, dated December 7, 2024, given to the shop as the person who distributed the calendars. Although she demanded her father’s acquittal, he was sentenced to four and a half years.
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