A Falun Gong member has been sentenced to life in prison and another one to 13 years behind bars for sabotaging a railway line and other crimes.
Dou Zhenyang and Wang Hongjun were sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court of Fushun in Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Sunday. Court investigations indicated that the two offenders telephoned the mayor of Fushun asking for the immediate release of detained Falun Gong practitioners who had attended illegal gatherings.
They claimed that if they were not released, they would "derail passenger trains between Fushun and Beijing." When their threats got nowhere, the two offenders placed two specially made roadblocks on the railway on the night of January 19.
The driver of a passenger train from Jilin to Tianjin saw the roadblocks and braked hard but although the train slowed down, it did hit the blocks.Some parts of the train were damaged and railway traffic was suspended for 12 minutes.Four days later, the two offenders placed roadblocks on the railway again, and the traffic was stopped for one hour.