(Minghui.org) Since Mr. Tian Xingbao was admitted to the Baoding Prison in 2019 to serve a ten-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong, the resident of Shenzhou City, Hebei Province has been denied visits with his family.
Mr. Tian was only allowed to call his family once a month. However, his family hasn’t received any calls from him for the past six months. They continued to make deposits to his commissary account to purchase daily necessities, but they cannot confirm whether he is allowed access to the account.
Mr. Tian was arrested on May 17, 2018, after a surveillance camera recorded him putting up Falun Gong posters. The police ransacked his home the next morning and confiscated a printer, paper, and over 10,000 yuan in cash.
When Mr. Tian’s two lawyers went to the Shenzhou City Detention Center to visit him on August 24, 2018, the guards initially denied their request. The lawyers pointed out that this was illegal and said they would file a lawsuit. Only then did the guards allow them to meet with Mr. Tian.
The Shenzhou police later submitted Mr. Tian’s case to the Anping County Procuratorate. The prosecutor rejected it on September 17 citing insufficient evidence, but accepted the case after the police resubmitted it.
Mr. Tian’s lawyers visited him again at the detention center on October 11 and reviewed the case at the procuratorate, which forwarded the case to Anping County Court on November 5.
During the court hearing on December 21, 2018, Mr. Tian and his two lawyers defended his constitutional right to freedom of belief. The prosecutor then requested to withdraw the indictment against him and to return the case to police for additional evidence.
Between January 9 and 11, 2019, officers from the Weiqiao Police Station harassed Mr. Tian’s brother and other family members. The prosecutor indicted him again shortly after.
The Anping County Court held the second hearing of Mr. Tian’s case on January 28, 2019. The “additional” evidence submitted was the same items confiscated from Mr. Tian and the location where he put up the Falun Gong posters. One of his lawyers attended the hearing and entered a not guilty plea for him. Mr. Tian maintained that practicing Falun Gong did not violate any law and that following the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance would make society a better place.
The prosecutor recommended a prison sentence of 7-15 years. The judge sentenced Mr. Tian to 10 years with a 50,000-yuan fine. Mr. Tian appealed with the Hengshui City Intermediate Court, which upheld his original verdict on June 8, 2019.
Mr. Tian was admitted to the Baoding City Prison shortly after. Because his family refused to pay the court fine, the prison hasn’t allowed them to visit Mr. Tian.
Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, thousands of practitioners in Hebei Province have been detained in the Baoding Prison, also known as the Hebei Province First Prison. The practitioners jailed there were subjected to all kinds of torture if they didn’t renounce Falun Gong.
Mr. Zuo Hongtao, of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, became critically ill while serving a 13-year term at the prison. He died on August 6, 2024, at the age of 67. The prison cremated his body without his family’s consent.
Prosecutor Withdraws Indictment Against Falun Gong Practitioner in His Court Hearing
Villagers Arrested after Police See Them Putting Up Falun Gong Posters on Surveillance Cameras