(Minghui.org) Mr. Li Chunyuan, 78, from Chongqing stood trial on July 3, 2026, because he practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Li was arrested on July 21, 2025, while he visited a friend at the Changshou District Chinese Medicine Hospital. The Liangjiang New Area Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for him on August 21 and indicted him in mid-November 2025.
The Liangjiang New Area Court held a pre-trial hearing on January 29, 2026. One piece of prosecution evidence was that the Changshou District Police Department “put Mr. Li on administrative detention in 2024.” His lawyer claimed the evidence was fabricated.
Mr. Li was arrested in April 2024 after the Changshou District Police Department alleged that their big data surveillance system flagged him for distributing QR codes used to access uncensored information about Falun Gong. He was interrogated at the Fengshan Police Station for nearly ten hours before he was released around midnight. No officer said that he was given administrative detention.
The court denied the lawyer’s request to exclude the police’s fabricated evidence. A second pre-trial hearing was held at an unknown time. Prosecutor Zhang Shiyang alleged that, on the morning of Mr. Li’s arrest at the hospital on July 21, 2025, the Changshou District Police Department discovered QR codes distributed by him in a residential area five miles away.
The lawyer asked how was it possible for his client to be in two places at the same time? The court instructed the Fuling District Police Department to verify the new QR code allegation.
The defense lawyer also requested that prosecutor Zhang be recused in the upcoming trial because he verbally abused Mr. Li while he interrogated him at the local detention center. The judge rejected the request.
Mr. Li stood trial on July 3, 2026. His wife was not allowed to attend because she also practiced Falun Gong.
Prosecutor Zhang produced an administrative detention notice issued by the Changshou District Police Department to “prove” that Mr. Li was “put on administrative detention in 2024.” He was never issued such a notice back then, and his 2024 case file never mentioned administrative detention. His lawyer said that the notice issued long after his release amounted to nothing. The judge still allowed this information to be admitted as evidence in the trial.
Zhang also presented three identical screenshots of the QR codes that Mr. Li allegedly distributed while visiting his friend in hospital. His lawyer questioned how the Changshou District Police Department and the Fuling District Police Department could produce exactly the same verification results. Zhang replied that “Falun Gong’s utilization of high-tech made it difficult to verify prosecution evidence.”
The lawyer showed Ms. Chen Lihua’s testimony to debunk another piece of fabricated evidence. The police alleged that Ms. Chen’s son overheard Mr. Li telling his mother to stop getting medical care and just practice Falun Gong to cure her stroke symptoms. Mr. Li never said that when he visited Ms. Chen in the hospital. Her son, unemployed at the time, was deceived into making that statement after the police promised to find him a job. They arranged for him to work at a company, but he was fired the next day. Only then did he realize the police’s intention to use his statement against Mr. Li.
It is unclear when the judge will issue a ruling.
Related Reports:
78-Year-Old Former Physician Faces Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
Reported in 2025: 4,803 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested or Harassed for Their Faith
Accounts of Persecution by the Changshou District 610 Office in Chongqing City
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