(Minghui.org) A Tangshan City, Hebei Province resident was sentenced to 2.5 years for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Sun Jianzhong was arrested and had his home ransacked on July 22, 2020. He was taken to the Fengrun District Detention Center three days later. 

After a year of detention, Mr. Sun appeared in the Zunhua Court on July 19, 2021 and was convicted by Judge Wang Xiaomei on August 23. He has appealed with the Tangshan City Intermediate Court and Judge Liu Jian has been assigned to handle his case. 

Since the onset of the persecution, Mr. Sun has been arrested multiple times. He was subjected to a variety of torture methods while in detention centers and brainwashing centers, including being locked in a metal cage, shocked with electric batons, handcuffed with his arms behind his back, and tied up in a spread eagle position on a bed. The guards also subjected him to extreme heat or cold and covered his head with plastic bags. His femur was broken from the torture.

Mr. Sun was sentenced to seven years by the Lubei District Court on December 22, 2003 and was taken to the Jidong Prison on April 15, 2004. There, he was held in solitary confinement, force-fed and had his hands cuffed behind his back. Two inmates were assigned to monitor him around the clock and didn’t allow him to talk to anyone.

When he was held in solitary confinement on January 8, 2005, Mr. Sun was forced to sit on a small stool. He was often beaten and one of his ribs was broken as a result of a beating.

A guard named Yang Bin shocked Mr. Sun with an electric baton for one and a half hours in January 2006, causing his body to be covered in blisters.