After Over Ten Years of Incarceration, Heilongjiang Man Gets Prison Term Again for His Faith

(Minghui.org) A Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province resident was recently sentenced to a two-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Liu Xuegang, 54, was arrested at home at around 5 a.m. on July 26, 2022. His cellphone and more than 40 Falun Gong books were confiscated. He was taken to the Jixi City Detention Center in the evening, and later sentenced by the Jidong County Court. Details about the sentencing aren’t clear.

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Liu was targeted for his faith. He previously served nearly three years of forced labor and eight years in prison.

Mr. Liu was detained for 48 days following an arrest in December 1999. Not long after being released, he was arrested again on March 7, 2000 and detained for 15 days. One of his Falun Gong books was confiscated.

Only three months later, in June 2000, a group of officers broke into his home one evening at around 11 p.m. and seized his Falun Gong books, exercises music tapes, and a walkman audio player. He was held in the police station for a week. The police attempted to extort 500 yuan from his family, but they refused to pay.

Mr. Liu went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on November 8, 2000. He was arrested and taken back to Jixi, and held in custody until January 19, 2001. Sun Mengshan, head of the Hengshan District Police Department, extorted 3,000 yuan from his family.

Mr. Liu was seized by the police again on July 21, 2001. He was beaten, hung by his handcuffed wrists, deprived of sleep, and interrogated for 19 hours. He was later given a 2.5-year forced labor camp term. He held a hunger strike to protest the persecution in October 2001 and was force fed. His incarceration dealt his mother a hard blow. She fell ill and passed away soon after, without seeing Mr. Liu for the last time.

Torture illustration: Hung up by handcuffed wrists

Because he protested the beatings of other practitioners in the labor camp in July 2003, guards beat Mr. Liu’s feet with PVC pipes. The nail of his right big toe was smashed and his insteps became swollen. The guards extended his term by three months. He was transferred to the Suihua City Forced Labor Camp and released on May 20, 2004.

Mr. Liu’s next arrest was at 4 a.m. on May 14, 2009. His home was ransacked. His wife, Ms. Zhong Li, who also practiced Falun Gong, was arrested as well. He was taken to the Jixi City No. 2 Detention Center the next day and then to the Jixi City No. 1 Detention Center in early July after his arrest was approved. Both he and his wife were sentenced to eight years in November. They appealed, but the higher court ruled to uphold their original verdicts.

Mr. Liu was taken to the training team in Jixi Prison on February 1, 2010 and then transferred to the Jiamusi Prison on March 25. His family went to the prison three times to visit him, but were denied each time. When Mr. Liu’s brother was finally allowed to see him in November 2010, he was saddened to see that Mr. Liu’s eyes were swollen from the beatings.

Prior to his latest arrest in 2022, Mr. Liu was arrested another time on November 3, 2020 and detained for ten days.

Related report:

Husband and Wife Illegally Sentenced to Eight Years of Imprisonment