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China sentences 5 Falun Gong members to up to 13 years in prison
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By
Associated Press
ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
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Monday August 20, 2001 |
BEIJING - Five Falun Gong members were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for arranging gatherings of the banned spiritual group in the Chinese capital, a state newspaper said yesterday.
The report in the Beijing Daily came two days after four people were sentenced to prison on charges of organizing a Jan. 23 attempt by Falun Gong members to burn themselves to death on Tiananmen Square.
The cases are part of stepped-up efforts to destroy the group, which Chinese authorities banned in 1999 as a threat to communist power. Public activities have dwindled, including protests once held almost daily on Tiananmen Square, but some members still meet in secret and print spiritual tracts.
Those convicted of organizing gatherings in Beijing were among 45 people tried by Chinese courts on Falun Gong-related charges in nine separate cases, the Beijing Daily said.
The report didn't say whether the 40 other defendants were convicted or when the verdicts were handed down. Officials of the four courts cited by the newspaper were not available for comment yesterday. The courts were separate from the one where defendants accused in the group suicide attempt were tried.
Zhang Xiongwei was sentenced to 13 years in prison for renting rooms used for secret meetings, the Beijing Daily said. Convicted with him was Li Suqin, who received three years.
Also sentenced were Yang Jiguang, who received 12 years in prison, the Beijing Daily said. Shao Qiang and Qui Xiuxing received 10-year terms.
The report didn't give any other details about the defendants.
Falun Gong attracted millions of members in the late 1990s with a combination of slow-motion exercises and beliefs that mixes traditional Chinese thinking with the teachings of its founder.
Falun Gong supporters say more than 250 members have died in custody. Human rights groups have accused the government of torture and other abuses, though authorities deny mistreating detainees.
Zhang and the other defendants also were accused of making 2,800 Falun Gong banners and printing 98,000 pamphlets, the Beijing Daily said.
A man accused of organizing the Jan. 23 suicide attempt was sentenced Friday to life in prison. Three others received terms ranging from seven to 15 years.
A mother and her 12-year-old daughter died in the group self-immolation.
Falun Gong organizers in the United States, where its founder lives, say the participants couldn't have been members because the group forbids suicide.
State media have given conflicting accounts of the suicide attempt, and authorities have refused foreign reporters access to the survivors.
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