86-year-old Retired Engineer Serving Three-year Term, Denied Family Visits

(Minghui.org) An 86-year-old retired engineer from Kunming City, Yunnan Province is still in prison for practicing Falun Gong, a mind and body improvement practice currently being persecuted in China. Mr. Li Peigao was sentenced to three years in Yunnan Province First Prison in 2019 and has since been denied all visitation.

Mr. Li was arrested in January 2019 when he was 83 years old, and was secretly sentenced to a three-year prison term. When an officer from Yongchang Police Station called his family to provide an update about his case, he was already in Yunnan Province First Prison.

While the police promised that his family could visit him after three months, over two years has past and the prison authorities haven’t allowed his family to see him once, not even virtually, citing the pandemic as an excuse. The family is very worried about his safety and health.

Mr. Li retired from Yunnan Construction Installation Company as a senior engineer in 1994 and lived alone. Shortly after he learned Falun Gong in March 1996, his chronic diarrhea of over 20 years and the swelling and inflammation of his prostate disappeared. He followed the teachings of Falun Gong, Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, and became completely healthy and energetic.

Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, Mr. Li’s ordeal never stopped because he refused to give up his faith. He was held in a brainwashing center three times, arrested a dozen times, and had his home ransacked seven times. When he wasn’t incarcerated, the police monitored and followed him, tapped his phone, and summoned him.

Two Previous Prison Terms

Prior to his latest prison term, Mr. Li had been given two more terms, in 2008 and 2015.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics the Chinese communist regime launched a mass arrest of Falun Gong practitioners. Officers from the Daguan Police Station and Wuhua District Domestic Security went to Mr. Li’s place on the evening of June 21, 2008, pretending to want to learn the Falun Gong exercises. One officer dragged him into his bedroom, while the other officers called in a dozen more officers to ransack his place. They confiscated his Falun Gong books, computer, two printers, paper cutters, an e-book reader, and a mobile hard drive. A prosecutor indicted him, and a judge in Kunming City Intermediate Court sentenced him to three years in prison in 2009.

Mr. Li was sentenced again to four years by the Xishan District Court, following his arrest on November 26, 2015 for distributing Falun Gong fliers. Due to his hypertension, the judge allowed him to serve time outside of prison.

Taken to a Brainwashing Center Three Times

Mr. Li’s former employer, officials from the residential commission, and officers from Wuhua District Domestic Security worked together to three times put him in a brainwashing center in Hangkong Nursing Home in Kunming City.

The Wuhua District 610 Office ordered Mr. Li’s former employer to take him to the nursing home in August 2001. The head of the 610 Office held a ten-day brainwashing session in the nursing home, and twelve Falun Gong practitioners were forced to attend. The practitioners were forced to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong.

Mr. Li’s former coworkers worked with people from the Zhuantang Residential Commission to take him to the nursing home again in August 2003. The practitioners there all attended the previous brainwashing session and refused to renounce Falun Gong.

The 610 Office, Wuhua Procuratorate, and Wuhua Domestic Security Office held a nine-day brainwashing session in the nursing home in July 2005. They coerced Mr. Li to attend.

Other Arrests and Incarcerations

The officers from Binchuan County Police Department in Dali City arrested Mr. Li when he told others about the persecution on March 27, 2001. The officers interrogated him, ransacked his place, and locked him in Binchuan County Detention Center for a month. He only got to go home after his family paid the officers 2,000 yuan.

When Mr. Li gave out DVDs with information about Falun Gong in May 2012, he happened to give one to a plainclothes officer. The officer took him to the Chongren Police Station to interrogate him. Other officers ransacked his place. He was released one hour later.

Mr. Li handed out Falun Gong calendars and pamphlets to others in late November 2018. Officers from Jinbilu Police Station arrested him on November 24 that year. He was released the same evening after the officers from Xishan Domestic Security Office ransacked his home.

Summoned and Home Ransacked Multiple Times

A few days after the persecution started, three officers took Mr. Li to Xiba Police Station when he did the Falun Gong exercises outdoors on July 24, 1999. He refused to stop practicing Falun Gong after an officer from Kunming Police Department warned him. The officer took him home and confiscated his Falun Gong books and exercise tapes.

Two officers broke into Mr. Li’s home when he was meditating in the evening of October 28, 1999. They took him to Xiba Police Station to interrogate him and forced him to sign the deposition.

An officer from Wuhua District Police Department summoned Mr. Li seven times in October 1999 and interrogated him. One time three officers went to his home to question if he still practiced Falun Gong.

Two officers from Kunming City Police Department ransacked his place on November 8, 2000, and confiscated his exercise tape.

Two officers from Kunming City Police Department broke into his home one day in May 2002, and wrote a search warrant right then and there. With the warrant they ransacked his home for three hours. They confiscated his Falun Gong books and literature, a notebook computer, and a walkman audio player. The officers took him to the police department and two doctors took his blood pressure. His blood pressure became extremely high and he passed out while using the restroom. The police insisted that his blood pressure was stable and interrogated him until midnight. He went home that day but the next few days the officers continued coming to his home to harass him and search his home.

An official from his former employer came to his place and arbitrarily announced that he’d take “temporary custody” over him. Mr. Li had to report to the official if he wanted to leave home. This lasted for over a year.