According to China Aid,  Chen Yu, the owner of Wheat Bookstore, and his lawyer Deng Qinggao pleaded not guilty and made statements in court. Chen’s parents also attended the trial. The result of the second instance is currently pending decisions.

On the 1st of September 2019, Chen, who operated his online bookstore in Zhejiang province’s Taizhou city, was detained for selling unapproved religious publications imported from Taiwan, the US, and other countries. Consequently, the police launched a nationwide investigation to track down the bookstore’s customers through sale records and confiscated their purchased books.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined 200,000 RMB ($29,450 USD) on the 27th of September the same year. The 12,864 Christian books from his bookstore were also destroyed by the Linhai City Public Security Bureau.

On the 10th of December 2021, Chen Yu’s mother, Zheng Jinmei, received Chen Yu’s second letter since the last one in July. She revealed that Chen Yu was not bitter, nor did he complain in the letter. She recently fell ill but was greatly comforted and encouraged by her son’s letter.

Source: persecution.org