94 Practitioners Sentenced for their Faith in July and August
According to new data published by Minghui.org, 94 new cases of Falun Gong practitioners being sentenced for their faith were reported in July and August.
Of these 94 practitioners, fifty-five took place in 2024, ten in 2023, and one in 2020, while twenty-eight individuals were sentenced on unknown dates.
The prison terms ranged from three months to nine years, with an average sentence of 2.6 years and fines as high as 30,000 CNY (approx. 4,200 USD).
These sentences took place across China with cases in 18 provinces and three municipalities. The regions with the highest number of cases were Shandong Province with 17 individuals sentenced, Jilin Province with 14, and Sichuan with 11.
Figure: Number of Falun Gong practitioners’ sentencing cases reported in July and August 2024 by region. (Credit: Minghui)
The sentenced individuals whose ages are known ranged from 40 to 86 years old and have a wide variety of occupations including farmers, factory workers, and even a police officer.
Due to strict censorship by the CCP, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners can’t always be reported on time, nor is all information readily available. Practitioners who have suffered persecution themselves also face the danger of being retaliated against when reporting the persecution accounts with their real names. Overall, it is impossible to accurately know the total number of people who have been persecuted for their faith.
The following are stories of just a few of the practitioners who have been sentenced for their faith by the CCP:
Having Spent 11 Years Behind Bars, Yunnan Woman Gets Another Four Years for Her Faith
Ms. Guo Ling, a 67-year-old woman from Yunnan Province, was sentenced to four years in prison on July 19, 2024, Ms. Guo’s third sentence for her faith in Falun Gong. She was given seven years in 2003 and sentenced to another four years in 2009, during which she suffered numerous injuries.
Ms. Guo was stopped by the police as she was walking home at around 9 p.m. on September 24, 2022. Without showing their IDs or a search warrant, they proceeded to raid her residence and confiscate personal items.
Ms. Guo was taken to the Haikou Police Station around midnight, where she was forced to sit in a chair throughout the night while being watched by two male officers. The next day, the police interrogated her and collected her fingerprints and a blood sample against her will. Due to leg injuries from her previous prison term, the detention center denied her admission and she was subsequently released.
The persecution did not end after she was released. Police and residential committee staff members continued to harass Ms. Guo. During her hearing at Xishan District Court, the judge refused to summon witnesses to appear in court to accept cross examination and constantly interrupted Ms. Guo when she was speaking.
A few days later, the judge announced that she had been sentenced to four years. Ms. Guo decided not to appeal this decision.
Inside Yunnan Second Women’s Prison, the guards forced her to sit still 16 hours a day on a tiny stool for two years. The lack of blood circulation caused permanent tissue damage in her hip joints, which resulted in necrosis.
The frequent incarceration in solitary confinement took a toll on her mental health and caused her to suffer from agitated hallucinations. Even after Ms. Guo had suffered numerous injuries, the authorities still refused to release her, until her family filed charges against the prison authorities. By the time she was released on medical parole in November 2011, she had already become paralyzed.
Torture reenactment: Sitting still all day on a tiny stool
The police and community officials continued to harass Ms. Guo after she returned home, and forced her to routinely report to the police. Her husband filed for divorce after not being able to withstand the mental pressure. She was forced to move out and rent an apartment, and lived on her meager pension. To further persecute her, the Social Security Bureau suspended her pension, and demanded that she return the pension received while she was in prison.
In April 2023, Mr. Pang Shanxi, a 77-year-old resident of Heilongjiang Province, wrote a letter to the local Longzhen Farm Police Station urging them not to participate in the persecution of Falun Gong. The police station reported him to its supervising agency, the Wudalianchi City Police Department. Together the two agencies sent out agents to raid Mr. Pang’s home and his Falun Gong books were confiscated.
In January 2024, the Nenjiang City Court sentenced Mr. Pang to three years in prison with a 10,000-yuan fine.
Ms. Wu, a 40-year-old resident of Laixi City, Shandong Province, was arrested on November 7, 2020, by the police in Laixi and Luoyang City, Henan Province. The police did not show their ID, and ordered Ms. Wu to the police station while she only had her pajamas on. They did not even allow her to put on her socks.
Ms. Wu was taken to Luoyang on the next day, held at the Luoyang City Detention Center, and denied family visits. The Jianxi District Procuratorate in Luoyang sentenced her for sharing videos about Falun Gong on Chinese social media app, WeChat, and forwarded her case to the Jianxi District Court on April 25, 2021. Her family was not given updates of her case status until 2023 when they learned that she had been sentenced to six years.
Since 2019, the police in Henan Province have been traveling outside the province to arrest citizens who post information on social media platforms exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.
Ms. Wu’s arrest dealt a heavy blow to her mother, Ms. Song Jingsu. Ms. Song suffered declining health and died on February 6, 2022, the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, without seeing her daughter one last time.
73-Year-Old Man’s Prison Sentence Changed from 3.5 Years to 5 Years With No Explanation
Four months after Mr. Liu Ji, a 73-year-old resident of Yongji County, Jilin Province, was sentenced to three and a half years for practicing Falun Gong, the presiding judge changed his sentence to five years without offering an explanation.
Mr. Liu was arrested on October 30, 2023, but due to his poor health, the local detention center refused to admit him and he was released on one-year bail. The Chuanying District Procuratorate summoned him twice in March 2024. That same month, he was called to the Chuanying District Court and sentenced to three and a half years.
Mr. Liu was ordered to serve time at the Yongji County Detention Center, but was denied admission after he was found to have high blood pressure. He was thus put under house arrest for six months.
The police took Mr. Liu to court on July 8, 2024 and he was given a five year sentence. Mr. Liu was confused as he had previously been sentenced to 3.5 years just four months ago. Ultimately, Judge Li offered no explanation for this change.
This information about select sentencing cases. The full list of sentenced practitioners can be downloaded here (PDF).