(Minghui.org) A Yushu City, Jilin Province, resident, was recently sentenced to one year for practicing Falun Gong, after having been incarcerated for over 13 years since the onset of the persecution by the Chinese communist regime in 1999.
Mr. Yuan Junfeng and his wife Ms. Hou Lihua were arrested at their family-run store on June 28, 2024, by officers of the Yushu City Domestic Security Division. Their store and warehouse were ransacked. They were released around 9 p.m. that day.
Mr. Yuan received a call from Yang Shucai of the Yushu City Domestic Security Division on September 12, 2024 and was ordered to report to them to sign certain paperwork regarding his case. He went there, only to be arrested and taken to a detention center. His family recently confirmed that he had been sentenced to one year by the Dehui City Court. But details about his indictment, trial, and sentencing aren’t clear. It’s also unknown whether he had been transferred to prison.
Mr. Yuan began to practice Falun Gong in 1997. He soon quit many bad habits such as gambling, drinking, and fighting. Because he remained firm in Falun Gong after the persecution started in 1999, he was repeatedly targeted and spent over 13 years behind bars.
Mr. Yuan was arrested on July 14, 2001 by officers of the Tuqiao Township Police Station. After 15 days of detention, he was taken to the Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp to serve a one-year term.
During his labor camp term, the police took him to the Shulan City Detention Center to interrogate him. They whipped him on the back with PVC pipes. One officer said, “Even if you don’t say anything, we can still sentence you. I will torture you and make you suffer little by little.”
To protest the persecution, Mr. Yuan held a hunger strike for 28 days. The officers force-fed him corn paste with excessive amounts of salt and injected him with unknown drugs. His mouth was injured from the brutal forced feeding and bled heavily. An officer stepped on his face and said, “Let’s see how long you can persist.”
Mr. Yuan was later sentenced to four years even before his one-year labor camp term ended. He was transferred to the Tiebei Prison in the capital city of Changchun on April 15, 2002. While he was serving time, the police made another attempt to trick him into providing information about other practitioners, by promising to lower other practitioners’ prison terms. Mr. Yuan refused to comply and was taken back to the Yushu City Detention Center. After another 15 months of detention, he was sentenced to eleven years, even though his first four-year prison term had not ended yet. He was transferred to the Jilin Province Second Prison.
When Mr. Yuan was finally released on December 13, 2014, after having spent thirteen years and four months in three lockups, two detention centers, one forced labor camp and two prisons, his vision was blurred and one of his legs was thicker than the other. With severe back injury, he was unable to do hard work. Even sitting for too long would cause him excruciating pain.
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