55-Year-Old Hebei Man Admitted to Prison to Serve 3-Year Term, Previously Jailed 12 Years for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhi Zhanmin’s family received a notice on June 15, 2025 stating that he had been admitted to prison days before on June 4 to serve a three-year term because he practices Falun Gong.

Mr. Zhi, a 55-year-old resident of Baoding City, Hebei Province, is currently held at the Fourth Branch of Jidong Prison, also known as the Jidong Branch of the Hebei Provincial Prison Administration Bureau. Located in Tangshan City, Jidong Prison has nine branches and Falun Gong practitioners are usually assigned to the First, Second, Third, and Fifth Branches, after a brief detention at the Fourth Branch, which is for newly admitted inmates.

Mr. Zhi’s prison sentence stemmed from his arrest on April 9, 2024, during a police sweep of local Falun Gong practitioners. The Jingxiu District Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for him in late May 2024 and forwarded his case to the Gaoyang County Procuratorate.

The Gaoyang County Court heard Mr. Zhi’s case on December 10, 2024 and February 11, 2025, at the Baoding City Detention Center. Mr. Zhi’s lawyer and family defender refuted the allegations that prosecutor Yao Suling levied against him. Mr. Zhi also emphasized that he broke no law by exercising his constitutional right to freedom of belief.

Judge Li Zhiyong sentenced Mr. Zhi to three years with a 10,000-yuan fine at an unknown time. The Baoding City Intermediate Court later ruled against Mr. Zhi and he was transferred to prison on June 4, 2025.

Mr. Zhi was previously arrested in 2005 and sentenced to 12 years for intercepting a TV signal to broadcast information about Falun Gong, as a way to raise awareness about the persecution due to the strict censorship in China. His heavy sentence traumatized his parents and they passed away while he was incarcerated. His older sister Ms. Zhi Ping, who served a forced labor camp term for practicing Falun Gong, also died in 2014 at the age of 41.

When Mr. Zhi was released in 2017, he relied on help from a sister and found a job doing house renovations. Just as his life started to return to normal, he was arrested again on April 9, 2024, by officers from the Xinshichang Police Station. According to his roommate who shared the apartment with him, the police broke in with Mr. Zhi’s key, forced his roommate to leave, and ransacked the place.

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