(Minghui.org) Five days after a Falun Gong practitioner was given a probation sentence, the judicial committee of the same court revoked the verdict and sentenced him to four months in prison.
This is the third time for Mr. Weng Hongwu from Pizhou City, Jiangsu Province, to be incarcerated for his faith in Falun Gong. He has been given two years of forced labor in 2004 and sentenced to prison in 2009 with an unknown term.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the communist regime since 1999.
The police began to harass him in May 2017. The Quanshan Court in Xuzhou City held two hearings, one in early 2018 and another August 2018, but no verdict was ever announced.
An officer from Tushan Town Police Station in Pizhou City went to Mr. Weng's home on September 25, 2018, and took him to the courthouse. When he still hadn't returned late that night, his family got worried and went to the police station to ask about him. They were told that the officer who'd taken him to the courthouse wasn't back yet either.
His lawyer was unable to get hold of the judges in charge of his case that day, but the lawyer heard back the next day that the judges had sentenced his client to probation on September 25 but that the verdict was rejected by the court's judicial committee.
In China, judicial committees within courts can override individual judges' rulings.
Mr. Weng was taken to the Pizhou Detention Center while the court worked on a new verdict. His family also confirmed his detention after visiting the police station again.
On September 30, Mr. Weng's lawyer informed his family that he was sentenced to four months in prison.
