(Minghui.org) A 53-year-old man serving a five-year term for practicing Falun Gong has been subjected to strict management and is in serious condition. His family is calling on the international community to pay attention to his case.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Liu Liankun, of Tianjin, was arrested at home on August 2, 2019. Both his home and office were ransacked. Prior to the arrest, the police had harassed him three times. 

Mr. Liu was later taken to Beichen Detention Center.

Two staff members of the residential committee came to Mr. Liu’s home on January 11, 2021 and said to his wife that they were given two weeks to force Mr. Liu to renounce Falun Gong. They threatened to sentence him to seven years. But if she signed the renouncing statement for him, he might get a lighter term. She refused to comply.

Mr. Liu was sentenced to five years in October 2021 and taken to the Binhai Prison, where he was under strict management and is in serious condition. Details about his situation aren’t clear.

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Liu has been targeted for his faith. He was previously arrested in April 2000 and given two years at the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp. His term was extended by a year as he refused to renounce Falun Gong.

Mr. Liu was arrested again in April 2003, shortly after he was released. He was first held at the Banqiao Forced Labor Camp and then transferred to the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp. He was released on April 27, 2005, only to be arrested one more time on December 15 in the same year.

Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the Binhai Prison has been actively persecuting practitioners detained there. It launched a new campaign in May 2019 aimed at forcing imprisoned practitioners to renounce their belief. All practitioners, including those who are ill, those in their 70s and 80s, as well as those who are scheduled to be released soon, have been required to “transform.” 

Mr. Li Shaochen, a 77-year-old man serving a four-year term, died on March 6, 2020, as a result of the torture. Yet one prison guard boasted, “I’d rather have one dead Falun Gong practitioner ‘transformed’ over a live one who is not.” 

Related report:

Tianjin Man Sentenced and Wife Harassed for Their Shared Faith in Falun Gong