After 6.5 Years of Incarceration, Pediatrician Sentenced to Another 4.5 Years for Refusing to Renounce His Faith

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After 6.5 Years of Incarceration, Pediatrician Sentenced to Another 4.5 Years for Refusing to Renounce His Faith

October 23, 2018 | By a Minghui correspondent in Hubei Province, China

(Minghui.org) A 48-year-old pediatrician is appealing his 4.5 years prison sentence for practicing Falun Gong to the Xiaogan Intermediate Court in Hubei Province. He was convicted and fined 5,000 yuan by the Anlu City Court on September 28, 2018.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the communist regime since 1999.

Dr. Xiong Jiwei said that, prior to his hearing on September 19, the presiding judge, Yang Yaolong, met with him in the detention center and threatened to sentence him to prison for 3 to 7 years if he didn't plead guilty.

During his trial, Dr. Xiong defended himself, insisting that practicing Falun Gong was not a crime and arguing the lack of legal basis for the persecution. The same judge frequently interrupted him whenever he mentioned Falun Gong.

Dr. Xiong was arrested at his hospital on November 7, 2017. The police had targeted him and two other practitioners after suspecting them of putting up banners with Falun Gong messages along a major highway in Hubei Province.

The other two practitioners, Mr. Xiong Wenzhi and Mr. Wang Gangqiang, were tried in the same court on the same day, and each was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 3,000 yuan. They have been in Xiaogan Prison since October 17, 2018.

It wasn't clear whether or not Dr. Xiong Jiwei has been taken to prison.

This isn't the first time that Dr. Xiong Jiwei has been persecuted for his faith in Falun Gong. In October 1999, he was given 1.5 years of forced labor for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing. He was fired from his job and forced to postpone his wedding.

He was held in a detention center when his daughter was born in 2001.

He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2002 and tortured in Fanjiatai Prison, including being force-fed, beaten, and shocked with electric batons. He was taken to the Banqiao Brainwashing Center only moments after his release from prison.

He was given another year of forced labor during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the fabricated notice of the verdict, his college degree became “middle school education” and his profession as a physician became “factory worker.” The police also had a list of items confiscated from his residence, although they never entered his home.