(Minghui.org) After Mr. Liu Hongshu, a 54-year-old resident in Qishan County, Shaanxi Province, was arrested on September 27, 2020 for practicing Falun Gong, his parents frequented the local police department to seek his release, but to no avail. Distressed, his father took a fall at the police department and later passed away, without seeing Mr. Liu for the last time.
Mr. Liu took up Falun Gong in early 1999, several months before the persecution began. He credits the practice for curing his brain injuries sustained in a car accident ten years prior, which prevented him from finding a job or getting married. With good health, he was able to support himself again.
He was working at a publishing house in Xinjiang Province when the Chinese communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline, in July 1999. He lost his job and was given a labor camp term for talking to people about Falun Gong. After he was released, he moved back to his hometown. As he held firm to his faith, he has been subjected to constant harassment in the past two decades.
Mr. Liu was taking a break from working in his family’s wheat field on September 27, 2020, when a dozen officers suddenly broke in to his home and arrested him. His Falun Gong books, cellphone, DVDs and media player were confiscated.
He was first held at the Qishan County Police Department for four days and then transferred to the Qishan County Detention Center.
To protest the persecution, he held a hunger strike for ten days. The guards didn’t provide any medical treatment to him. It dawned on him that the guards were leaving him to die, so he stopped the hunger strike.
Two prosecutors from the Qishan County Procuratorate came to the detention center in October 2020 and ordered him to sign a pile of case documents. One prosecutor said that he was indicted for “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization.” Mr. Liu questioned what law was undermined by him and how. The prosecutor was unable to answer. When he tried to clarify the facts about Falun Gong, they left in a hurry.
The same prosecutors returned to the detention center on December 18 to question him. Mr. Liu questioned them again what law was undermined by him and how. Unable to answer him, one prosecutor slandered Falun Gong instead.
Mr. Liu also demanded his immediate release. “There are so many Falun Gong [practitioners] detained, should we release all of them?” one prosecutor asked.
“Yes! Since you can’t say what law we violated or prove whether we hurt anyone, then on what basis are you detaining us?” Mr. Liu responded. The prosecutors remained silent.
During his incarceration, Mr. Liu’s parents in their 80s frequented the police department to seek his release, but to no avail. His mother fell ill from the mental distress and had an operation. Right after she was discharged from the hospital, she went to the detention center to demand her son’s release. The guards finally allowed her to have a video chat with Mr. Liu. Upon seeing his swollen face, she burst into tears.
As the family’s wheat ripened in June 2021, the parents demanded the police release Mr. Liu for him to harvest the wheat, but they were denied again. Mr. Liu’s father fell in the police department and injured his head. He fainted and was taken to the hospital. He was hospitalized for ten days and was found to have had a stroke. Unable to afford the medical fee, he returned home and passed away soon after.
At the detention center, Mr. Liu was later secretly sentenced to three years.
Related reports:
Shaanxi Man on Hunger Strike to Protest Arbitrary Detention, in Serious Condition
After Repeated Arrests for His Faith, Shaanxi Man Targeted Again—Elderly Parents in Distress
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