(Minghui.org) A recent report on the Minghui website described the tragedy of one family, in which father and son had been arrested a total of 15 times and imprisoned for 18.5 years all together for their belief in Falun Gong, a self-improvement spiritual practice being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
Now, news has come that the father has been given a third prison term following his eighth arrest for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.
Because of his physical condition, Mr. Liao Songlin, a 77-year-old veteran, had his hearing at a conference room in the No. 198 Military Hospital on September 27, 2018. Luo Wen, presiding judge of the Beihu District Court in Chenzhou City, announced on October 22 that Mr. Liao was sentenced to three years in prison.
A number of violations of legal procedure were committed on the part of all agencies involved throughout the prosecution of Mr. Liao.
Over 10 officers from the Beihu Police Department arrested Mr. Liao at his home on July 19, 2018, without presenting any IDs or arrest warrant. Five officers returned later to ransack his home without a search warrant. They confiscated his Falun Gong books, more than 9,000 yuan in cash, and other valuables.
After being sent to the Chenzhou Detention Center, Mr. Liao was diagnosed with high blood pressure, heart disease, minor stroke, and tuberculosis. Instead of releasing him, officials sent him to the No. 198 Military Hospital, where he remains to this day.
Mr. Liao's wife Ms. Meng Qinglian, talked with Liu Jingsong, head of the local Domestic Security Office, on July 22, requesting her husband's release. Liu showed her an arrest notice, saying that Mr. Liao has “used a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a pretext often used by the authorities to frame Falun Gong practitioners.
As no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong or labels it a cult, Ms. Meng submitted a written appeal to both the Beihu Police Department and the Beihu Procuratorate on August 29. Neither agency responded to her request to release her husband.
Ms. Meng learned on September 6 that her husband had been issued a formal arrest warrant. She visited the Beihu Procuratorate, but no one listened to her appeal for the case to be dropped. When she visited the office again on September 13, she was told that the case had been forwarded to the court.
According to China's Criminal Procedure Law, a summons should be delivered three days prior to a court hearing. But no summons was sent in Mr. Liao's case. After speaking just a few sentences during the hearing on September 27, Mr. Liao was stopped by presiding judge Luo and deprived of his right to defend himself.
More than 40 officers patrolled the hospital where the hearing was held. They stopped practitioners who showed up to support Mr. Liao, took photos of them and barred them from going inside. Ms. Meng was the only spectator allowed to attend her husband's trial. She saw that her husband was handcuffed and shackled during the hearing.
Mr. Liao was sentenced to prison less than one month after his hearing. He plans to appeal to the Chenzhou Intermediate Court.
His son, Mr. Liao Zhijun, was arrested for the 7th time in May 2017 for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. He was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment and fined 10,000 yuan in March 2018. He appealed, but the Chenzhou Intermediate Court ruled in April to uphold his original sentence.
Xu Xianglong, director of the Beihu District Court: +86-735-2222997, +86-18073569136Luo Wen, presiding judge of the Beihui District Court: +86-735-2329961Liu Jinsong, head of the Beihu Domestic Security Office who led the arrest of Mr. Liao
Father and Son Arrested a Total of 15 Times and Imprisoned 18.5 Years For Their Faith