Practitioner in Kunming City Arrested and Sentenced Because His Wife Had the Same Name As a Crime Suspect

Name: Cheng Hongchou
Gender: Male
Age: 61
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Retired employee of the Liangting Steel Rolling Mill in Kunming City
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 2nd, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Xishan District Detention Centre
City: Kunming
Province: Yunnan
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, torture, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Mr. Cheng Hongchou is a 61-year-old Falun Gong practitioner who worked at the Liangting Steel Rolling Mill in Kunming City. Because his wife has the same name as a crime suspect, the police broke into his home and arrested him. On March 13th, 2012 the Kunming City Court sentenced him to three years of imprisonment with three years of probation.

At noon on June 2nd, 2011, five agents from the Xishan District Domestic Security Division in Kunming City, including head Qiu Xueyan, broke into Mr. Cheng’s home. They were supposed to arrest a woman named Zhao Haiying, but because his wife has the same name, they didn't bother checking further and mistook her as the suspect. After finding that Mr. Cheng was visiting the Minghui.org website, the agents ransacked his home and arrested him. They also took away his computer and many of his other personal belongings. His wife had gone out to buy groceries and was not at home when the perpetrators first arrived.

When the agents brought Mr. Cheng downstairs, his wife returned from shopping. They only bothered to check her name and immediately arrested her. The couple was then taken to a police station and interrogated separately. When they realized that Mr. Cheng's wife was not the person they were looking for, the agents released her the same evening, but they sent Mr. Cheng to the Xishan District Detention Centre, merely because he practises Falun Gong.

The agents also threatened his wife, saying, “We will return and arrest you if you expose today’s incident on the Internet.”

While he was held in the detention centre, Mr. Cheng was brutally tortured. As a result, his body and mind were badly injured. He developed symptoms of oedema in his legs and he was in very poor physical condition. The guards gave him a pending trial date, attempting to shirk their responsibility in case he died.

Mr. Chen sustained a serious brain injury during a traffic accident in 2006. He was diagnosed with intracranial haemorrhage, intracranial hematoma, brain contusion, skull fracture and five fractured ribs. The doctors issued a critical condition notice. However, by practising Falun Gong, he miraculously recovered and left the hospital within one month. Two months later he returned to work as usual.

After Mr. Cheng was arrested, his wife denounced Qiu Xueyan and other agents to the Kunming City Procuratorate for their crimes of illegal encroachment and illegal detention. However, procuratorate officer Wang Haitian would not investigate; instead, in retaliation, he brought an accusation against Mr. Cheng to the Kunming City Intermediate Court.

Following an order from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), Zhang Zhaolong, presiding judge of the Kunming City Intermediate Court sentenced Mr. Cheng to three years of imprisonment with a three-year probation. Previously, Zhang had sentenced Mr. Han Zhenkun to seven years of imprisonment, and more than 10 other practitioners to prison.

Perpetrators:
Qiu Xueyan, head of the Xishan District Domestic Security Division
Wang Haitian, officer of the Kunming City Procuratorate
Zhang Zhaolong, presiding judge of the Kunming City Intermediate Court: 86-871-4096523, 86-871-4096530