(Minghui.org) It was recently learned that a resident of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province has been sentenced to 4.5 years for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Gao Ke’s prison sentence stemmed from his arrest on September 14, 2022 for distributing calendars bearing information about Falun Gong. Officer Zhao Gang of the Jingyu Police Station released him on bail days later after he was found to have high blood pressure during a physical examination required for detention.
Zhao called Mr. Gao on February 5, 2023 and ordered him to report to the Daowai District Procuratorate. He refused to go because he had not broken any law in spreading information about Falun Gong.
Four days later, Zhao showed up at Mr. Gao’s home, along with two other officers. They took him to the Daowai District Procuratorate, where prosecutor Yin Yanhong verified his name and ID without doing any further questioning. He was then let go and told to wait for Yin to call him in a few days.
Prosecutor Zhang called Mr. Gao early in the morning of February 17, 2023 and ordered him to report to the procuratorate at 10 a.m. for deposition.
Mr. Gao did not want to be prosecuted for upholding his faith so he left home and went into hiding. The police and the local street committee workers began to harass his wife and son, threatening to detain his son if Mr. Gao did not turn himself in before noon on March 4, 2023. They also posted officers outside his apartment building to monitor everyone who entered or exited the building.
Mr. Gao’s family lost contact with him on June 16, 2023 and later learned he’d been arrested that day in Bin County, which is under the administration of Harbin City. He had gone grocery shopping that day and ran into a police officer from the Daowai District Police Department. The officer knew who Mr. Gao was and seized him on the spot.
Mr. Gao was taken to the Yaziquan Detention Center in Harbin City. The guards assigned two inmates to watch him around the clock. The inmates beat Mr. Gao and did not allow him to use the restroom or talk to others without their permission. He went on a hunger strike in protest and was force-fed on the seventh day. He went into shock during the forced-feeding and was rushed to a hospital.
Despite Mr. Gao’s serious condition, the detention center guards checked him out of the hospital four days later. He was incapacitated and needed support to use the restroom.
Mr. Gao was later sentenced to four and a half years and transferred to the Hulan Prison. The details of his trial, sentencing, and prison transfer remain to be investigated.
Mr. Gao’s latest two arrests and subsequent prison sentence were preceded by 14 prior arrests (which resulted in five terms of forced labor) for his faith in Falun Gong. He was either denied admission or released ahead of time during each labor camp term because he was either in poor health or had been tortured to critical condition.
14 Prior Arrests
Mr. Gao, a retired elementary school teacher, took up Falun Gong at the end of 1996. He soon recovered from his decades-long illnesses, including gallstones, kidney stones, lumbar disc herniation, cystitis, cholecystitis, rheumatism, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and coronary heart disease. He also became a more patient teacher and a kinder person.
After the persecution began in July 1999, Mr. Gao held firm to his faith and was repeatedly targeted. Below is a short list of Mr. Gao’s previous 14 arrests. For details of his persecution, see the related reports at the end of this article.
- first arrest on December 12, 2000 followed by a one-year term of forced labor (Mr. Gao was released ahead of time, on September 30, 2001).
- second arrest on February 7, 2002 followed by 16 days of detention.
- third arrest on March 12, 2002 followed by a three-year term of forced labor (Mr. Gao was released ahead of time, on September 18, 2004).
- fourth arrest in early November 2004 followed by several days of detention.
- fifth arrest in late February 2006 followed by a two-year term of forced labor (Mr. Gao was denied admission by the local labor camp and released after an unknown amount of time at a detention center).
- sixth arrest in September 2007 followed by five months of detention (Mr. Gao was ordered to serve the two-year labor camp term given in 2006 but was released ahead of time).
- seventh arrest in February 2009 followed by several days of detention.
- eighth arrest in early June 2009 followed by several days of detention.
- ninth arrest in late June 2009 followed by a two-year term of forced labor (Mr. Gao was released on the verge of death after 21 days of detention).
- tenth arrest on February 20, 2010 followed by nine days of detention.
- eleventh arrest on October 22, 2012 followed by five days of detention.
- twelfth arrest on November 14, 2012 followed by an unknown term of forced labor (Mr. Gao was released ahead of time, on December 5, 2012).
- thirteenth arrest on March 25, 2013 followed by two days of detention.
- fourteenth arrest on June 19, 2014 followed by five days of detention.
Related Article in Chinese:
Related Reports:
Elementary School Teacher Recounts Drug Torture and Electric Shocks at Labor Camps
Mr. Gao Ke Tortured in Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp
Mr. Gao Ke Tortured at Changlinzi Labor Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province (Photo)
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