Ailing 80-year-old Man Sentenced to Four Years Right After Serving Three Years
(Minghui.org) An 80-year-old man was never released after serving a three-year term for practicing Falun Gong. Instead, the authorities kept him in custody and handed him another four-year term months later. In addition, they refused his family’s request that he be released on medical parole due to his suffering a serious health condition.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Liu Xiyong
Mr. Liu Xiyong, of Dalian, Liaoning Province, was arrested on April 9, 2018. Without a court trial, he was sent to Benxi No. 4 Prison in May 2018 to serve a three-year term.
While Mr. Liu’s wife desperately sought his release at the local police station, an officer said to her, “We will let him die inside [the prison] this time!”
When Mr. Liu’s family went to the prison to pick him up on April 9, 2021, they were devastated to learn that he had been taken away by officers from the Shihezi Police Station.
For 114 days, Mr. Liu’s family couldn’t get any update about his situation and was extremely worried. They later learned that he was held at the Sanli Detention Center in Jinzhou District and was tortured for going on a hunger strike to protest the persecution.
Only when his family was notified by the detention center on September 3 to make cash deposit for him to buy daily necessities, were they allowed to visit him, who had already been hospitalized. His family said that Mr. Liu looked very weak, yet the authorities still handcuffed and shackled him in the hospital bed. The doctor told them that he had diabetes and fluid accumulation in his chest.
When his family visited him in the hospital again in September 27, they were told that the police would transfer him to the prison on the next day. The authorities refused to reveal any other information. But his family later found out that he was sentenced to four years to the Dalian City No. 3 Prison.
The prison informed Mr. Liu’s family on December 9 that he was suffering a serious medical condition and would be taken to the hospital soon. The family was asked to meet with the guards at the hospital. The family rushed to hospital and saw a police van carrying Mr. Liu arrive. He was in a wheelchair and was kept in a metal cage in the back of the van.
The family was saddened to see that Mr. Liu’s face, hands and feet were all swollen. He appeared to be incapacitated and was unable to talk clearly. Four guards surrounded him. When his granddaughter tried to adjust his mask, the guards intimidated her and didn’t allow the family to get close.
The guards also demanded that Mr. Liu’s family pay all his medical expenses. They blamed him for having had the condition prior being arrested and said they bore no responsibility for him. The family asked if they could apply for medical parole for him. A guard responded that there was no way for him to be released if he didn’t renounce Falun Gong.
Mr. Liu’s wife longs for him to return home
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