(Minghui.org) It’s recently confirmed by Minghui.org that a Xianning City, Hubei Province, resident was taken to the Fanjiatai Prison in March 2023 to serve a three-year sentence for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Liu Haiquan, in his 40s, received a call from a stranger on April 13, 2021, asking if he could install satellite dishes. The stranger hung up after he said yes. Shortly after, Zhang Shijun, the secretary of Xianning City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and Liu Ning, the head of Xianning City Domestic Security Office, showed up at his workplace and arrested him.
The authorities accused Mr. Liu of installing satellite dishes for people to receive NTDTV, an uncensored U.S.-based Chinese TV station. He was held in the Jiayu County Detention Center, Xian’an District Detention Center, and a brainwashing center in Xian’an District for the next two years before being transferred to the prison.
Mr. Liu’s father, in his 80s, frequented the Domestic Security Office and the detention centers to demand his release shortly after his arrest, but to no avail. He then wrote an appeal letter to the municipal government and never received any response.
The letter explained that Mr. Liu’s wife and nephew (his brother’s son) both have an intellectual disability and that his brother has been suffering from uremia.
The father said that Mr. Liu didn’t have an obligation to care for his brother and nephew, but after he started to practice Falun Gong, he became increasingly considerate and selfless. He invited his brother and nephew to live with his family so it’d be easier for him to take care of them. Through Mr. Liu’s actions, his brother and nephew truly witnessed the power of Falun Gong in teaching people to be good and kind.
Mr. Liu was made to stand trial at the Tongcheng County Court in late December 2021. It’s not clear when he was sentenced.
In late January 2022, a few days before the Chinese New Year, Mr. Liu’s father managed to meet with Liu Ning and demanded his son’s release so he could spend the holiday with the family. Liu claimed that he was no longer in charge of the case. He also changed his phone number, possibly to avoid answering calls from Mr. Liu’s father.
Sole Breadwinner for Extended Family Faces Prison Sentence After One-Year Detention