(Minghui.org) A resident of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province was sentenced to two years in prison on June 20, 2019, two days after he was tried for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Hu Lin, an aircraft engineer, has been repeatedly arrested and detained for his faith in Falun Gong. He was savagely beaten, shocked by electric baton, deprived of sleep, and forced to do slave labor while being detained at a labor camp between 2001 and 2002.
Mr. Hu was arrested on November 12, 2017 after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, and subjected to various tortures and forced feedings at the detention center. After he was released on the verge of death, he lived away from home to avoid further persecution.
After the police found out he was not living at his home, they put him on the wanted list.
When Mr. Hu was arrested again on May 23, 2019 for distributing Falun Gong materials, he was sent directly to Faku County Detention Center. He held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was force fed.
His lawyer and family were rejected by the guards when they went to the detention center to visit him on May 31 and June 3. The guards said that the visit had to be approved by Chen Chao, head of Sijiazi Police Station, who was responsible for his latest arrest.
The lawyer and his family kept calling Chen, but no one answered the call for days. When Chen finally picked up the phone, he told Mr. Hu's family that it was fine for the lawyer to meet with him and that he wasn't in charge of the visitation.
When the lawyer returned to the detention center, however, the deputy director still forbade him from meeting with Mr. Hu and said he had to discuss it with the detention center's director.
On June 14, Mr. Hu's family found out that his case had already been submitted to Faku County Court earlier that month.
When the lawyer went to the court to review his case document at 8:00 a.m. on June 18, he was surprised to find that the judge had scheduled a hearing of his client at 9:00 a.m.
The lawyer attended the hearing, but two of Mr. Hu’s family members were blocked outside the courtroom, as the judge said the case contained confidential information.
The bailiffs carried Mr. Hu into the courtroom.
The lawyer asked the judge why he and his client's family were not informed of the hearing. The judge said that they didn't have their contact information, when in fact Mr. Hu's family had been calling the court to seek information on Mr. Hu's case.
The lawyer pointed out that his client was arrested for distributing information about his faith, and that nothing about that was confidential. He pointed out that it was illegal for the judge to hold a secret hearing for him. The judge didn't respond.
Mr. Hu testified during the hearing that he had been tortured in the detention center. The judge interrupted him and didn't allow him to continue.
When the lawyer went to the detention center in the afternoon to meet with Mr. Hu, he was still denied visitation.
Related report:
Mr. Hu Lin and Mr. Pan Youfa from Shenyang, Liaoning Province Arrested and Tortured
