4 Chinese get prison for `evil cult' activities

http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/080-4333.html
Monday, 27 December 1999

BEIJING (AP) - China sentenced four principal organizers of the Falun Gong group to up to 18 years in prison at a one-day trial yesterday. It was the most significant prosecution since the government outlawed the spiritual movement.
Judges found the four guilty of organizing and using a cult to undermine laws, causing deaths and illegally obtaining and disseminating state secrets, state-run media reported.
Li Chang and Wang Zhiwen were sentenced to 18 and 16 years in prison - among the harshest sentences given to political or religious dissenters in China this decade. Ji Liewu and Yao Jie were sentenced to 12 and seven years.
Falun Gong preaches a mixture of slow-motion meditation exercises and ideas drawn from Buddhism and Taoism. It is said to promote health and morality, and in seven years has attracted millions of followers in China and abroad.
The government banned the group five months ago, calling it a public menace and a threat to Communist Party rule. Chinese leaders contend the group's unorthodox practices - especially a recommendation that followers forgo medical treatment - have led to the deaths of more than 1,400 people.
Judges ruled that the defendants ``organized and used the Falun Gong's evil cult organization to spread superstition and heresies and to deceive people, causing deaths,'' the Xinhua News Agency said.
Exposing fears about Falun Gong's ability to mobilize large numbers of followers, Xinhua said Li, Wang, Ji and Yao ``set up 39 command posts, more than 1,900 training posts and more than 280,000 contact posts.''
They ``plotted and directed'' 78 protests, each involving more than 300 people. Among those was an April 25 demonstration attended by 10,000 followers, the agency reported.
Judges also found the four guilty of stealing 37 state secrets and illegally netting more than $54 million in profits from proselytizing sessions and sales of Falun Gong literature.
Falun Gong activists in the United States, in a statement issued yesterday, condemned the proceeding as a ``show trial'' that proved that ``in this day and age, there is no rule of law and spiritual freedom in China.''
Presiding Judge Ma Zirong said the trial stuck to the law and noted that Li and Yao confessed to various crimes.

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For further information on Falun Gong and China, check out the following links:
FalunDafa.org (An overview of Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa)
Human Rights in China
China Today


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