(Minghui.org) A Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province, man is still waiting for the verdict of his appeal case, after a hearing was held on October 25, 2021.
Mr. Chen Yan, a 59-year-old former mining bureau employee, was arrested at home at 7 a.m. on April 23, 2021, while cooking for his elderly father. The police claimed that he had been reported for talking to people about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Chen’s latest arrest came only a year after he was released from serving a previous five-year term, also for practicing Falun Gong.
Without showing identification or a search warrant, the police ransacked Mr. Chen’s home. Instead of having Mr. Chen sign the confiscation list, the police found a family member who wasn’t present during the raid to sign the list a few days later.
The police also fabricated an interrogation record and witness accounts against Mr. Chen in order to charge him, including an account from an eight year-old.
Mr. Chen was tried by the Lingdong District Court in September 2021 and sentenced to five years. His family wasn’t informed of the trial.
After Mr. Chen appealed the verdict, the Shuangyashan City Intermediate Court held a hearing of his appeal case on October 25. His lawyer argued that the prosecution’s evidence had failed to support the allegation that his client undermined law enforcement, which has been the standard pretext used by the Chinese authorities to imprison Falun Gong practitioners. The lawyer added that it is Mr. Chen’s Constitutional right to practice his faith, and that no law criminalizes Falun Gong in China.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Sun Lixing (孙俐兴), presiding judge of Shuangyashan City Intermediate Court: +86-17614696046Song Fenghai (宋丰海), judge of Lingdong District Court: +86-13339332677, +86-469-6110309Wang Xuchun (王旭春), prosecutor of Lingdong District Procuratorate: +86-469-4025791, +86-469-4025971Wang Kaixuan (王凯旋), officer of Beishan Police Station: +86-18145371716
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)