Wang Qinghua, 74, was sentenced to four and a half years: one four-year-old Falun Gong case, where the public decision was still absent

From 2022, when first controlled by the police, to 2026, when four years and six months of imprisonment were received, Wang Qinghua, 74-year-old Falun Gong practitioner in Hebei Changli, went through a four-year criminal chain of procedure: bail, prosecution, trial, suspension of trial, rearrest and final sentencing.

Ming Hui Network disclosed on 24 September that Wang Qinghua was taken away on 31 July by members of the police station in Nueva Town, Chanli district, and that on 17 September he received a judgement from the People ' s Court of the Jinning District of Qin Emperor Island. According to the information of 20 September, he was prepared to file an appeal.

Case begins with a religious expression on the street

According to the case disclosed by Ming Hui Network, Wang Qinghua was placed under police control and subsequently detained and secured after he had disseminated Falun Gong-related content to children at the Ansan Town Fair in Chanli district in August

1. In June 2024, the case was brought before the People ' s Court of the Zhuining District; The trial was held on 20 August.

According to the same source, the defence requested access to and examination of the original material evidence in the trial, challenging the merits of the case. The court, which had planned to deliver its judgement in September of that year, failed to appear in Wang Qinghua, and on 8 October it decided to adjourn the hearing on the grounds that it could not locate the party.

Two years later, Wang Qinghua was arrested again. Less than two months later, he received a judgement for four years and six months. The reported deadline for the sentence was 30 January 2031.

The real missing is how the courts have converted religious expression into a four-and-a-half-year term.

The core of Wang Qinghua's case should not remain under the label “Falun Gong practitioners”. The criminal trial must answer the question of what specific acts the court found to be, how they were in violation of the criminal law, how the physical evidence and witness testimony were formed, how the defence contested and why the final sentence was four years and six months.

However, to date, the full text of the judgement has not appeared in the open channels. The outside world is aware of the sentence but does not see the full reason for the decision. This information gap is particularly important in cases involving religious or politically sensitive cases, as only public documents can test whether the courts base their convictions on ideas, beliefs and the dissemination of information per se or whether other specific criminal facts are available for judicial review.

Four and a half years, what it means for a 74-year-old.

Wang Qinghua will be released from prison at the age of 80 if he completes his sentence. The number of sentences, which is only four words in the judgement, is in reality meant that the State takes over all the freedoms, medical care and family life of late years.

Therefore, the most important thing to be disclosed in this case is not a sentence “judgement in accordance with the law”, but a complete chain of evidence and logic of adjudication. In particular, when a case has been suspended for four years and a subsequent prompt judgement after rearrest, the procedure should be re-opened, the evidence previously heard should be followed and the defence opinion should be processed in a manner that is open to external examination.

Wang Qinghua is ready to appeal, which means that the case is not yet closed. If the second instance continues to be held secret from the key instruments, it is not just the individual ' s reasoning that is being concealed, but the judicial system ' s treatment of the boundary between religious belief and criminal punishment.