(Minghui.org) A man in Xingtang County, Hebei Province, was sentenced to four years on June 17, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Fan Ruihai, a 58-year-old former accountant at the Xingtang County Police Department, was arrested on October 9, 2022, for putting up posters about Falun Gong. He was interrogated for an hour and had his home ransacked the next day. His Falun Gong books and computer were confiscated. On October 18, after seven days of quarantine at the Longzhou Police Station, he was transferred to the Xingtang County Detention Center.

Minghui.org recently confirmed that Mr. Fan has been sentenced to four years and admitted to Luquan Prison in the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang to serve time. Details about his indictment, trial, and sentencing aren’t clear.

Past Persecution

Mr. Fan took up Falun Gong in March 1998. He said that Falun Gong’s teaching answered many questions he had about life. Not long into the practice, his many ailments disappeared, including depression, a stomach condition, and shortness of breath.

In September 1999, two months after the persecution started, Mr. Fan went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. He was arrested, forced to squat for a day, and given nothing to eat or drink. At night, the police cuffed him to a heating pipe in the Hebei Province Liaison Office in Beijing. After he was taken back to Xingtang County, he was given 15 days in the Xinle City Lockup.

Mr. Fan’s employer demoted him in December 1999 and reassigned him to work in the remote Shangyanzhuang Town for a year. He was under close surveillance, especially around major holidays or anniversaries related to Falun Gong.

Mr. Fan was arrested again in May 2000 and given 15 days of criminal detention. The guards shackled his feet and twisted one of his hands behind his back, cuffing it to the other hand that was pulled over his shoulder from the front. This torture lasted seven days. They also often beat him and extended the detention by 15 days.

Torture reenactment: Handcuffed behind one’s back

Mr. Fan was twice taken to the Hebei Province Legal Education Center (a brainwashing center in disguise) in 2001 and detained for a total of three months. He was held in solitary confinement, deprived of sleep, and forced to watch and read propaganda materials slandering Falun Gong. He almost had a mental breakdown.

Mr. Fan was arrested again in November 2002 and held in the Xingtang County Party School for nearly two months. He was ordered to renounce Falun Gong again.

Mr. Fan went to the Xingtang County government in November 2004 to appeal. He was arrested and held in the police station for five days. The police later assigned him to criminal detention and transferred him to the Xingtang County Detention Center. He was sentenced to four years by the Xingtang County Court in August 2005.

During the13 months he was in the Xingtang County Detention Center, Mr. Fan was forced to work at least 13 hours a day and subjected to regular beatings. His face was bruised and he had a deep cut in the bottom of his foot from being pieced by a nail. In the winter, the guards stripped off his clothes and poured cold water over his head. Given little to eat, his weight quickly dropped from 80 kg (176 lbs) to 55 kg (121 lbs). His hair also turned gray.

After he was admitted to the fifth division of Jidong Prison, he was monitored by the inmates around the clock. Every day for six months, he was forced to run three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. The guards also forced him to stand, squat, or sit on a small stool without moving for long hours. He was deprived of sleep as well. He was forced to work without pay, often ironing clothes. He wasn’t allowed to take a break even when he had blisters on his hand from a burn. The relentless work and torture left him with extremely high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. He felt dizzy and was mentally exhausted.

The years of persecution caused his family tremendous pressure. Unable to cope, his wife divorced him. His two young children were often humiliated in social settings as they grew up. His mother, in her 80s, often cried, and his father passed away.