(Minghui.org) A 77-year-old resident of Wudalianchi City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to a three-year prison term and fined 10,000-yuan in January 2024 for writing a letter to the local police urging them to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners like him.

Mr. Pang Shanxi developed severe rheumatoid arthritis and stomach problems after years of doing manual labor as a grain depot worker. No treatment helped him much until he came across Falun Gong in 1999, after which all of his symptoms disappeared, and he became energetic again. After the Chinese Communist Party started a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong months later, he held firm to his faith because of his positive experience with the practice.

Mr. Pang wrote a letter to the local Longzhen Farm Police Station in April 2023, urging them not to participate in the persecution of Falun Gong. The police station reported him to its supervising agency, the Wudalianchi City Police Department. Together the two agencies dispatched agents to raid Mr. Pang’s home and confiscate his Falun Gong books.

The Wudalianchi City Police Department next submitted his case to the Wudalianchi City Procuratorate, which in turn forwarded the case to the Nenjiang City Procuratorate. Both Wudalianchi and Nenjiang are under the jurisdiction of Heihe City.

The Nenjiang City Court sentenced Mr. Pang to three years in prison with a 10,000-yuan fine in January 2024. He was taken to the Beian Prison shortly afterwards. About a month later, he was transferred to the Tailai Prison, where he remains.