(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Tong Mingyu was tried in the Changping District Court on February 2, 2018. The verdict was issued on February 6, 2018. He was given a three-and-a-half-year prison term, and his family was not informed of the verdict.

Mr. Tong, 37, is from the Shuangcheng District in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, but he works in Beijing.

He was arrested in the Baiquanyuan Residential Community in Machikou Town in the Changping District by Machikou Town Police Station officers in June 2017 for his practicing Falun Gong. He was taken to the Changping Detention Center.

Mr. Tong went on a hunger strike for over 20 days to protest his being persecuted. He was then transferred to the Beijing Public Security Hospital.

His non-practitioner parents still live in the Shuangcheng District in Harbin City. Officers from the Machikou Town Police Station went to the Zhiguo Police Station in the Shuangcheng District to tell Mr. Tong's parents that their son had not cooperated.

The parents hired a lawyer, who told Mr. Tong that he would not be able to plead not guilty in his defense. Mr. Tong refused to deal any further with this lawyer and asked his parents to find one who would enter a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Mr. Tong's parents are over 60 years old. It is difficult for them to go to Beijing. Mr. Tong's current situation is unknown.