Guangzhou Professor Sentenced to Prison for Posting Information on Social Media about His Persecuted Faith

The Haizhu District Court in Guangzhou City sentenced a college professor to three and a half years in prison and a 10,000-yuan fine on January 29, 2019 for posting information about Falun Gong on social media. His lawyer and family weren’t informed of the sentencing hearing.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. It has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Zeng Hao, 45, a business professor at Tianhe College of Guangdong Polytechnical Normal University, was arrested on August 10, 2017, after the police found that he had shared information about the persecution of Falun Gong on the QQ platform between October 2014 and January 2017. The police monitored him for a period of time before arresting him.

His parents, both in their late 70s, sought updates on his case at the police station, procuratorate, and court, but they were given the run-around and denied visits to him.

Mr. Zeng appeared in court on July 27, 2018. His lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for him and argued that the videos and photos he shared on social media could not support the prosecutor’s charge of “undermining law enforcement,” the standard pretext used by Chinese procuratorates and courts to prosecute Falun Gong practitioners.

The lawyer also argued that the communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong lacks legal basis and that his client exercised his freedom of belief and expression to practice Falun Gong and share information with others. He demanded an acquittal for Mr. Zeng.

Mr. Zeng’s father also planned to testify in his son’s defense. He was surprised to see his name appear on the prosecution witness list, and he was barred from attending the hearing.

The court took the prosecutor’s suggestion of a heavy sentence and handed down three and a half years to Mr. Zeng six months after the hearing.

Mr. Zeng vowed to appeal the sentence.

Mr. Zeng began to practice Falun Gong in 1995 while attending college. His severe liver problem soon disappeared. For not renouncing his faith after the communist regime ordered a nationwide campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in 1999, he was arrested twice and forced to live away from home for almost two years between 2001 and 2003.

Read the original article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2019/2/7/175738.html