Amid claims of legal irregularities, two men got respectively seven and seven and a half years for keeping books of the banned movement in their homes.
by Yang Feng
We should not become accustomed to it. Spending seven years or more in a Chinese jail just for practicing one’s faith and (perhaps) sharing it is not “normal.” Considering also how prisoners of conscience are mistreated in Chinese prisons, these verdicts are just unacceptable. Yet, they are now so frequent that the world scarcely pays attention.
Trials are also conducted in a cavalier way. This was the case for two Falun Gong practitioners of Yakeshi City, Inner Mongolia, Sun Wentian and Guo Changsuo, sentenced respectively to seven and a half and seven years in jail after a strange trial.
Sun and Guo were part of a group of six Falun Gong practitioners whose houses were raided by the Yakeshi City Public Security on April 8 and 19, 2023. Police claimed that they found “several” Falun Gong books in their homes. Although a list of the books was never provided, the police claimed that the number of books indicated the detained practitioners intended to distribute them to others, which called for heavier penalties.
While four women were prosecuted separately, the two men, Sun and Guo, were tried in the Yakeshi City court and received their sentences on September 23, 2024. That defense arguments were not examined seriously was something so obvious that even the Hulunbuir Intermediate Court had to agree uncharacteristically with the defendants and order a retrial.
However, the retrial ended with the sentences confirmed. The defendants appealed again but this time the Hulunbuir Intermediate Court did not hold a public hearing. It decided in chambers on September 23, 2024, that the appeal was rejected.
This decision remained unknown to the defendants’ relatives until last week. They hired lawyers to know more but they were told that they cannot visit their clients at the Yakeshi City Detention Center.
The case was plagued by repeated irregularities. The only certainty is that Sun and Guo should spend long years in jail just for having being caught with Falun Gong literature in their homes.
