(Minghui.org) A retired teacher in Pingyuan County, Shandong Province, was admitted to Shandong Province Prison on October 10, 2019, to serve a two-year term for his faith in Falun Gong, even though he failed the required physical exam several times due to high blood pressure.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Wang Jinhua, 69, was arrested on March 5, 2018, after being reported for putting up posters about Falun Gong a few days before.
Officers from the Domestic Security Division took him to Dezhou City Detention Center, which refused to admit due to his high blood pressure. He was released on bail on March 17.
On January 11, 2019, the police ordered him to sign documents for them to submit his case to the procuratorate. He refused.
Three days later, the police returned and told him to go to the Pingyuan County Procuratorate to sign the document. Mr. Wang refused to comply. The police warned him that the prosecutor would indict him whether he signed it or not and placed him under house arrest on January 23.
Mr. Wang's case was later transferred from the Pingyuan County Procuratorate to the Xiajin County Procuratorate. He had a meeting with prosecutor Zhang Jian on March 11.
Although the prosecutor returned Mr. Wang's case to the police twice for insufficient evidence, the police continued to pursue it. They submitted evidence from Mr. Wang’s April 17, 2017, arrest for distributing Falun Gong materials and subsequent 14-day detention as additional evidence to charge him.
The Xiajin Procuratorate indicted Mr. Wang and submitted his case to the County Court on May 29, charging him with “undermining law enforcement using a cult organization,” a standard pretext used by the Chinese authorities to frame and criminalize Falun Gong practitioners.
Mr. Wang appeared in Xiajin County Court on July 18. The judge sentenced him to two years with 5,000 yuan fine on August 7.
The police took Mr. Wang to Dezhou City Detention Center on August 8, but he was denied admission, again due to his high blood pressure.
Meanwhile, the local education bureau stopped issuing Mr. Wang's pension after being pressured by the authorities.
The police took Mr. Wang for another physical on October 9. He failed it again.
The next day, staff members from the court took Mr. Wang to Shandong Province Prison themselves after Mr. Wang yet again failed the physical to be admitted to Dezhou City Detention Center earlier in the day.
Mr. Wang began to practice Falun Gong with his wife Ms. Jing Chuanfeng in March 1997. Both of them experienced rapid improvement in their health.
Because they have refused to renounce their faith despite the persecution, Mr. Wang has been arrested nine times and Ms. Jing three times. The police have frequently followed, monitored, and harassed them and have extorted a total of 72,720 yuan from them.
