(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhou Dulun has become emaciated and is at the brink of physical and mental collapse in Yongchuan Prison in Chongqing.

He has been forced to sit on a small stool and labor for long hours; the prison forces him to stay up until 2 or 3 a.m. and wakes him up at 5 a.m., to get the maximize amount of labor out of him.

The prison did not give him enough food, so he suffered from extreme hunger for a long time. While he was in this famished state, the prison tried to brainwash him and force him to write the three statements renouncing Falun Gong.

Mr. Zhou formerly held a position in finance and served as the vice president of the labor union at his workplace. He was illegally tried and sentenced to three and a half years in prison in June 2014 for spreading information about Falun Gong.

After the verdict was announced, Mr. Zhou's family challenged the judge for unjustly convicting a good man. Mr. Zhou's mother is in her 80s. She has high blood pressure, and news of her son's second imprisonment was a terrible blow. She fell ill and passed away on December 20, 2014. However, Mr. Zhou is still a stranger to this sad news.

Mr. Zhou was arrested by officers from the Jingkou Police Station in the Shapingba District on September 6, 2013, when he was about to put up Falun Gong informational posters on an electricity pole. The police had been tailing him.

He was first tried in the Shapingba District Court on January 15, 2014. His lawyer pleaded not guilty on his behalf and argued that, according to the law, it is legal to practice Falun Gong in China. He asked that his client be acquitted.

Mr. Zhou was tried a second time in the Shapingba District Court on June 17, 2014. During the trial, the judge ignored his statement and pronounced him guilty of propagating Falun Gong. The court sentenced him to three and a half years in prison.

Before practicing Falun Gong, Mr. Zhou had been diagnosed with advanced stage arthritis and many other ailments. He started to practice Falun Gong at the age of 47 and regained his health. Falun Gong also helped him quit smoking, a 20-year-old habit. He has lived by the principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and has become a more altruistic person.

Since the CCP launched the persecution against Falun Gong in July 1999, Mr. Zhou has repeatedly appealed to the authorities for the right to practice Falun Gong. He was arrested three times and fired from his job. In 2002, he was sentenced to a 13-year prison term and released in 2011.

Parties Involved in the Persecution of Mr. Zhou:

Hu Maping, head of Yongchuan Prison, +86-23-49890547 (Office)Chen Hong (陈宏), chief prosecutor of the Shapingba District Procuratorate: +86-23-65315961 (Office)Ren Yaodong (任耀东), deputy prosecutor of the Shapingba District Procuratorate: +86-23-65415955 (Office)Yu Bin (虞斌), Political commissar of the Shapingba District 610 Office: +86-23-63755224 (Office)Liu Wei (刘伟), team lead of the Shapingba District 610 Office: +86-23-63755335 (Office)Chen Jiangyu (陈江渝), director of the Shapingba District Police Department: +86-23-63755190 (Office)