China Sentences 4 Sect ‘Ringleaders’ to Prison

After months of official denunciation and the harshest political campaign in a decade, four alleged ringleaders of the outlawed Falun Gong meditation group were tried, convicted and given lengthy prison sentences here Sunday for stealing “state secrets,” organizing a cult to obstruct justice and causing deaths.

The jail terms ranged from seven to 18 years--a sign of how seriously the Communist regime views Falun Gong as a threat to its rule of the world’s most populous country. The toughest sentences exceeded even those handed down earlier this year to political dissidents who tried to organize a pro-democracy opposition party.

The official New China News Agency announced the verdicts late Sunday after the trial, which started early in the morning amid heavy security on the west side of the Chinese capital and lasted just one day.

Foreign reporters were kept back, and some onlookers at the courthouse and downtown in Tiananmen Square were carted off by police. It was not immediately clear whether those taken away were Falun Gong practitioners, who have proved tenacious in their protests during the 5-month-old ban on their group.

Authorities alleged that the four defendants masterminded an April 25 protest that brought out 10,000 Falun Gong followers to surround the government leadership’s compound without warning. The daring sit-in stunned top officials, who subsequently ordered the most aggressive political crackdown since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The two men who were handed the lengthiest terms are themselves former government officials. Li Chang, 59, a onetime deputy director of the Public Security Ministry, was given 18 years in prison, while Wang Zhiwen, 50, a former railway official, received a 16-year sentence.

The other defendants were Ji Liewu, 36, the manager of a state-owned metals company, and Yao Jie, 40, an employee of a real estate firm. They were sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison, respectively.

All four were accused of obstructing justice. Other charges included obtaining and leaking state secrets, conducting illegal business and causing the deaths of people who were allegedly duped by Falun Gong’s teachings on healing and other tenets.

The mystical sect blends traditional Taoist and Buddhist beliefs and preaches kindness, virtue and a conservative moral code in conjunction with breathing exercises designed to channel a person’s qi, or life force. The group’s leader, Li Hongzhi, who commands a worldwide following from his home in exile in New York City, also has predicted the end of the world and claimed to have supernatural powers, such as the abilities to levitate and become invisible.

Estimates of the number of Falun Gong disciples in China range from 2 million to more than 60 million. The Beijing regime is particularly concerned that many followers, like Li Chang and Wang Zhiwen, might hold jobs in government or be Communist Party cadres.

Wang Fanglan, the wife of Li Chang (who is not related to Li Hongzhi), said her husband’s lawyers argued that he intended no harm.

“He had no motive to kill or cheat anyone,” she said in a telephone interview.

The attorneys also contended that Li’s activities on behalf of Falun Gong occurred before the ban on the group was issued in July.

Those arguments were rejected, but the New China News Agency reported that the court “decided to be lenient” toward Li and co-defendant Yao because he and she openly confessed to their roles in organizing Falun Gong.

The defendants have 10 days in which to appeal, but any petition would almost certainly be turned down in such a high-profile, government-driven case.

Since it ordered the ban, Beijing has kept up a stream of invective against the “evil cult,” which the government says encourages unlawful activities and endangers people’s lives. Officials allege that 1,400 people have died adhering to Falun Gong’s teachings by refusing medical treatment for serious illnesses or even committing suicide.

The Clinton administration has expressed its concern over the ban, calling it a violation of human rights and freedom of religion, but Beijing regards the crackdown as a domestic affair.

“We have appealed to the Chinese government through thousands and thousands of letters to ask for a peaceful dialogue to resolve this issue,” said Gail Rachlin, a spokeswoman for the group who is based in New York. “We’ve gotten no response at all.”

Falun Gong practitioners, who range from peasant farmers to college professors to elderly retirees, have embarrassed the Communist regime with their continued protests. The demonstrations, often organized through the Internet, grew after the ban was issued and have ebbed somewhat, but a handful of followers routinely continue to show up in Tiananmen Square.

Demonstrators are quickly hustled away by police wherever they crop up and are usually released after a short detention. Although there have been reports of deaths of a few followers while in custody, the government has tried to draw some distinction between suspected ringleaders and rank-and-file believers.

But even the rank and file have been subjected to “study sessions” and pressure to recant their beliefs, measures that strike many Chinese as extreme and anachronistic. Many residents, however, also say they support the ban in general, citing government contentions of social and individual harm.

Last month, four lower-level Falun Gong organizers in southern China were handed jail terms ranging from two to 12 years, setting the stage for Sunday’s trial.