Wang Hansheng and his wife, Xu Xianglan, were charged with organizing and using a cult to undermine the law in their four-hour, Dec. 23 trial, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
The center said Thursday (Dec. 30) that no verdict had as yet been made public. The center also said the court found no evidence to support accusations in state news media that Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi shared huge profits made by the couple's sales of movement books and photos.
However, the center provided no information to back its claim about the court. A person who answered the telephone at the court abruptly hung up when asked about the case by the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, more members of the group were detained Thursday in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, where Falun Gong followers have been holding small, quiet protests that are quickly stopped by police on an almost daily basis. Officers led away three men who held up their arms in a meditation pose used by the group. A separate group of three women was also taken away.
The government banned the popular spiritual movement in July, calling it a threat to communist control. Four Falun Gong organizers were tried on Sunday in Beijing and sentenced to prison terms of seven to 18 years.
Falun Gong leaders say their movement, which claims tens of millions of followers in China, is concerned with healthy and moral living, not political power. Falun Gong combines elements of Buddhism and Taoism with "qigong," a traditional Chinese system of physical movements and meditation.
In Singapore, eight Falun Gong members delivered letters to the Chinese Embassy on Thursday, expressing concern over recent arrests of members in China.
"We hope the Chinese government can have peaceful talks with us to solve the Falun Gong situation, and stop the unfair arrests of Chinese practitioners," said Xiao Gao, one of the petitioners.
The letter concerned three students from China who practiced Falun Gong and had been studying electronics at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, Xiao said. Falun Gong says the three were arrested while visiting Beijing during a November vacation.
