(Minghui.org) An 87-year-old man in Bin County, Heilongjiang Province, was sent to a new prison located in the capital city of Harbin on August 8, 2025 to serve a 3.5-year term for practicing Falun Gong.
Mr. Zhao Yungu, a retired small tractor factory worker, was arrested on July 31, 2023 and released on bail the next day. He stood trial on August 16, 2024 and was sentenced to three and a half years and fined 30,000 yuan.
Mr. Zhao remained free before and after his trial until July 11, 2025 when agents from the Bin County Domestic Security Office and the Xicheng Police Station took him for a physical exam that day as per a court order. They carried him to an ambulance and drove him to the Heilongjiang Province Hospital. They took him to the Bin County Hospital for another physical exam on July 21 and admitted him to a newly built prison in Harbin on August 8.
Details of Latest Persecution
Mr. Zhao’s latest arrest took place around 7 a.m. on July 31, 2023 when he walked outside his apartment building. Five officers from the Bin County Police Department who were staked out there, seized him and took him to a hospital for a physical examination. Due to his poor health, the local detention center refused to admit him. The police released him on bail in the early morning hours of August 1, 2023.
An officer from the Xicheng Police Station and a prosecutor from the Yilan County Procuratorate came to Mr. Zhao’s home on November 29, 2023. They told him that a decision would be made in two months if his arrest was approved and he would be indicted.
Two days later, on December 1, the police submitted Mr. Zhao’s case to the procuratorate, which then decided not to approve his arrest.
The Bin County Police Station put Mr. Zhao on house arrest on January 30, 2024. He was taken to the Yilan County Procuratorate on July 4, 2024 but was allowed to go home later that day. It’s not clear whether he was ordered to sign any case documents at the procuratorate.
The Yilan County Procuratorate indicted Mr. Zhao on July 6 and the Yilan County Court extended his house arrest by six months on July 27, 2024.
The judge held a hearing for Mr. Zhao’s case at his home on August 16, 2024. He was sentenced shortly afterward.
This is not the first time that Mr. Zhao and his wife, Ms. Liu Shumei, a former business professional, have been targeted for their faith. They both previously served two one-year labor camp terms and a seven-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Liu developed a serious medical condition due to the pressure from the persecution, yet the police continued to harass her regularly. She was 77 when she passed away in May 2019.
Related Report:
86-Year-Old Man Sentenced to 3.5 Years in Prison for Practicing Falun Gong
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