(Minghui.org) Ms. Wu Yanwen was devastated when the police called her to say that her son Mr. Luo Liteng had been sentenced to four years in mid-September 2022 for their shared faith in Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Luo, of Macheng City, Hubei Province, was arrested on May 21, 2021 at the Macheng Train Station, after the security found a video in his cellphone of local practitioners celebrating World Falun Dafa Day at his home on May 10. He was kept at the Macheng Detention Center and denied family visitation.
When the police called Ms. Wu about Mr. Luo’s prison sentence by the Macheng City Court, they refused to reveal whether he had been taken to prison.
Ms. Wu, her husband Mr. Luo Kaijun and their son all took up Falun Gong in 1995. The elder Mr. Luo used to have rheumatic heart disease and it was cured one month after learning Falun Gong.
After the persecution started, the family set off to Beijing on December 3, 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong and were arrested. The elder Mr. Luo was tortured for months in custody. By the time he was released on April 28, 2001, he experienced systemic edema and was on the verge of death. He passed away on September 23, 2002, while Ms. Wu was still serving a two-year labor camp term at the Shayang Forced Labor Camp given shortly after her arrest.
The younger Mr. Luo was arrested again in June 2007 and held at the Macheng City Detention Center for a year. During that time, the police twice took him to the Hubei Province Brainwashing Center and tried, unsuccessfully, to force him to renounce Falun Gong through torture and intimidation.
Mr. Luo was sentenced to ten years at the Fanjiatai Prison in June 2008. As he remained firm in his faith, the guards beat him, burned him with cigarette butts and forced him to do unpaid labor. He was released in November 2015.
Related report:Mr. Luo Liteng from Macheng City Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison