Mr. Wang Zhi Sentenced, Mother Continues To Appeal

Mr. Wang Zhi is a Falun Gong practitioner who resides in Jidong County, Heilongjiang Province. After being sentenced to 7 years by a Jidong County Court, he has been sent to Mudanjiang City Prison. His mother has been consistently appealing for him.

Mr. Wang Zhi is 33 years old and he started to practise Falun Gong in 1998. In 2002, the Chinese Communist Party authorities sent him to a labour camp for two years.

On June 3rd, 2008, Zhao Taishan from the Jixi City Domestic Security Division, and Jiang Yunpeng and Lu Weibin from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) came to arrest Mr. Wang. They confiscated personal property with a value of more than 10,000 yuan¹. After the arrest, police officers Zhao Taishan and Jiang Yunpeng used plastic bottles to beat Mr. Wang on the face, neck and head. They also used electric batons to shock sensitive parts of his body, tying him up with ropes.

Mr. Wang Zhi's mother went to the Jixi Domestic Security Division many times requesting to see her son, but was refused. She said it is not a crime for her son to practise Falun Gong. She did not have money to hire a lawyer for him, so she wrote a statement herself on his behalf pursuing justice for her son in court.

On November 19th, 2008, a Jidong County Court held a hearing for Wang Zhi. Several kind hearted people helped to ask Wei Liangyue, a chief attorney at the Jiaodian Law Firm, to represent Mr. Wang . In his defence statement, Wei Liangyue said the charges against Mr. Wang were groundless and his client was innocent. In addition, Wei Liangyue requested the court to investigate the torture that his client had suffered.

However, the Jidong County Court secretly sentenced Mr. Wang Zhi to 7 years in prison. An appeal was submitted, but Jixi Intermediate Court sustained the primary verdict on February 24th, 2009. Right now, Mr. Wang Zhi is detained in Mudanjiang Prison and his mother has been appealing for him.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/4/3/220913.html