(Minghui.org) A resident of Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province was subjected to long term surveillance and harassment before being given a seven-year term in 2009 for not renouncing his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Tang Shiguo, in his 60s, was an employee of Panzhihua Steel Company. Because he held firm to his faith after the communist regime ordered the persecution in 1999, he was demoted from a senior electrician to a janitor.
In the next 20 years, his supervisors at his workplace often held meetings with him, attempting to force him to turn in his Falun Gong books and related materials, as well as writing statements to renounce Falun Gong. They didn’t allow him to go out of town if he refused to comply.
The local street committee and police often sent people to monitor his daily activities outside of his apartment and harassed him at home, rendering his family unable to live a normal life.
The police once searched his home and took away his Falun Gong book. He chased the officers for several hundred meters and got the book back.
During the 17th National Congress of the communist regime in October 2007, Mr. Tang's workplace held him in the office and didn’t allow him to go home. They had people monitoring him around the clock, even when he used the restroom.
Even after Mr. Tang was allowed to go back home after the Congress was over, he was still subjected to intensive surveillance.
Mr. Tang was arrested on February 25, 2009 by officers from the Panzhihua City Domestic Security Division. They ransacked his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books.
He appeared in Dong District Court on October 22, 2009 and was sentenced to seven years in prison. His appeal was rejected by Panzhihua Intermediate Court on December 2, 2009.
While serving time at Majiaping Prison, Mr. Tang was subjected to abuse, both mentally and physically. His health declined quickly. The prison intended to release him on medical parole twice, but the police and local residential committee insisted on his imprisonment.
