On June 20, The Hong Kong High Court dismissed Hu Aimin’s appeal against his conviction for vandalizing Falun Gong booths. Mr. Hu had been charged for damaging various Falun Gong booths in Hong Kong on five occasions in 2020 and sentenced to two weeks imprisonment suspended for 30 months.
The Falun Gong practitioners whose property was damaged by Mr. Hu hoped that he would not do any more evil instigated by the CCP.
Deputy Judge Yiu Fun-chi of the Court of First Instance of the High Court upheld the lower court’s ruling. He said Mr. Hu had no reasonable excuse for destroying the property of others. Mr. Hu argued that the Falun Gong practitioners’ exhibits “violated the national security law” and that he should “enforce the law on his own.”
Judge Yiu stated that law enforcement is the responsibility of the police and other law enforcement agencies and that the law does not allow lynching. He also upheld the lower court’s decision not to call three expert witnesses, saying the decision was not unreasonable.
The crimes took place in December 2020. In five separate incidents on Dec. 13, 19, and 20, Mr. Hu destroyed Falun Gong practitioners’ banners, display boards, computer racks, and other items in Mong Kok, Wong Tai Sin, and Tsim Sha Tsui, causing damage totaling approximately HK$15,000 (US$2,000). He was arrested on the 24th of the same month. In December 2002, Magistrate Li Chi-ho of the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court found Mr. Hu guilty of five counts of “criminal damage” and sentenced him to two weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 30 months.
When the case was last heard at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, the prosecutor played a video clip in court showing that on Dec. 20, Mr. Hu and his accomplices spray-painted a display board at Soy Street in Mong Kok. When Ms. Shi, a 70-year-old Falun Gong practitioner tried to stop them, she was pushed to the ground by Mr. Hu.
On the same day, Mr. Hu went to the Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui and threw the display board belonging to Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Chan into the sea and smashed her computer rack.
On April 3, 2021, Mr. Hu and two of his accomplices successively destroyed Falun Gong booths in Wong Tai Sin, and Mong Kok. He was found guilty on two counts of “criminal damage” and was sentenced to 15 weeks imprisonment with immediate effect. Co-defendant Zhou Yonglin received a reduced sentence after pleading guilty and was sentenced to nine weeks in prison. Each of them must also pay compensation of HK$2,300 (US$295) to the victim. Mr. Hu appealed the conviction and sentence. After hearing his submissions, Judge You adjourned the case to July 25 for his verdict.
Falun Gong Practitioner Appealed to the Perpetrator to Stop Evil Deeds
Upon hearing the High Court’s decision, Ms. Chan, who testified in court against Mr. Hu, told The Epoch Times: “I think the original sentence was already very light. I hope this person will repent and not do anything bad again.”Ms. Chan believed that Mr. Hu had been deceived by the CCP’s propaganda, or that he might have been promised rewards for his actions. Evidence released in court showed that on the day before his attacks on April 3, 2021, Mr. Hu sent a text message on his mobile phone saying, “If something happens to me, my boss will arrange for someone to send me living expenses.”
Ms. Chan said that Falun Gong is legal in China and other countries. However, Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the CCP, was jealous of the popularity of Falun Gong and initiated the persecution, using the state-controlled media to smear Falun Gong.
In 1999, Mr. Jiang established an extra-judicial organization “610 Office,” and launched a brutal suppression of Falun Gong. Currently, no law bans Falun Gong in mainland China. Falun Gong was not mentioned in the “Notice on Several Issues Concerning the Identification and Banning of Cult Organizations” promulgated by the CCP authorities in 2000 and 2005. The ban imposed by Jiang’s regime on the publication of Falun Gong literature in 1999 was repealed in March 2011.
Falun Gong Popularity Led to Brutal Persecution by the CCP
Falun Gong was introduced to the public by its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, in 1992. It includes five sets of exercises and guides practitioners to improve their morality based on “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.” Over the past 32 years, it has gained much popularity all over the world, and its main work, “Zhuan Falun,” has been translated into more than 40 languages.Amid the brutal persecution of Falun Gong, there has been evidence that the CCP is harvesting organs from living Falun Gong. Recently, on June 25, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Falun Gong Protection Act.” Upon implementation, the bill will sanction those involved in organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China.
In Hong Kong, Falun Gong practitioners have been peacefully protesting the persecution on the streets for 25 years, but they have long been repeatedly harassed and threatened with violence by pro-CCP organizations. In September 2020, Ms. Liu, a Falun Gong practitioner, after meeting with the police to discuss the potential Oct. 1 demonstration, was attacked by gangsters and suffered a bloody head. Ke Yanzhan, the 22-year-old man who was responsible for “keeping a lookout” at the scene, was charged with “injury with intent” in 2022 and was sentenced to 2 years and 9 months in prison.
Embedded video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VonI6_SNbhc
On Dec. 19, 2020, a man wearing a mask and a hat shielding his eyes and face frantically destroyed the Falun Gong information booth in Wong Tai Sin and then hastily disappeared. There were also several women at the scene, suspected to be members of the Hong Kong Youth Care Association Limited, verbally harassed Falun Gong practitioners at the scene.
The Falun Gong information booth in Mong Kok was destroyed, and the “Quit (CCP) party” sign was torn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdRbFer9BGU
After the Falun Gong information booth at Soy Street and Argyle Street in Mong Kok were vandalized by the CCP activists on Dec. 13, 2020, Falun Gong information booths in Wong Tai Sin, Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Mong Kok were also damaged on the 19th and 20th of the same month, respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=807vxVxdmPY
