Mr. Tan Weichang was arrested when he visited a fellow Falun Gong practitioner. After being jailed for one year, CCP authorities sentenced him to three years of imprisonment without any court session.

Mr. Tan Weichang Is Sentenced Three Years of Imprisonment without Court Session

Mr. Tan Weichang, 37, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. He was jailed in Sihui Prison on November 6, 2008. Prior to that, he had already been imprisoned for more than a year, and during that period judiciary authorities reviewed his case twice. On November 8, 2008, they made an official decision to sentence him to three years of imprisonment without any public court session.

Mr. Tan was a employee of Procter & Gamble. Over his eight-year career he was widely praised by his foreign bosses and colleagues for his good performance at work and received the "Model Employee" award numerous times. However, to care for his mother who suffered from a mental disorder, he had to give up his profession and instead led a life of fixing computers for other people.

On September 23, 2007, Mr. Tan was arrested by 610 Office officials when he was visiting fellow practitioner Mr. Huang Qian. That night, five people, including Ding (an official from the local Resident Committee), and some 610 Office officials and local police broke into Mr. Tan's home without a warrant. They ransacked his home for about four hours and took away his computer, several MP3 players, a removable hard disk, a DVD and VCD player, and other valuables, amounting to about 10,000 yuan in worth. Ever since, Mr. Tan has been held in a detention center and his family members are not allowed to see him. This has resulted in a broken family and his sick mother being left at home alone.

Mr. Tan was forced to undergo two secret court sessions manipulated by the 610 Office. Despite the argument from Mr. Tan's lawyer that he was innocent, the court incriminated him with the baseless accusation of "undermining the implementation of law" and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment, not even allowing his family members or his lawyer to speak.

Since November 6, 2008, Mr. Tan has been held in Sihui Prison, located on Northern Jiguang Street in Sihui City, Guangdong Province, where many Falun Gong practitioners have been held.