(Minghui.org) When Mr. Liu Wei’s family was finally allowed to see him for the first time in four years, they thought he was about to finish his four-year prison sentence. They were shocked to learn that he will be incarcerated for four more years.
Mr. Liu, 64, from Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, was arrested in the province’s capital Xi’an on September 28, 2019 for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Liu was held at the Yanta District Detention Center in Xi’an City for more than one month before he was transferred to the Foping County Detention Center. His family learned in early November 2019 that the police in Foping County brought Mr. Liu back to his home in Hanzhong City, which oversees Foping County.
The Foping police confiscated Mr. Liu’s Falun Gong books and printer. They suspected him of having previously visited Foping to tell people about the persecution of Falun Gong and were determined to prosecute him.
Mr. Liu’s family went to the Foping County Detention Center in late May 2021 and a guard there lied to them and said that he was sentenced to four years and transferred to the Hantai Detention Center. The guard also said Mr. Liu was appealing his prison sentence. His loved ones were not allowed to visit him at the Hantai Detention Center or have any other forms of communication (such as phone calls or virtual meetings) with him.
Mr. Liu reached the retirement age of 60 in 2019 but never received a penny of his pension from either his employer, Hanzhong City Grain and Oil Machinery Factory, or the local social security office.
His loved ones were later told he was serving time at the Weinan Prison. After the COVID pandemic restrictions were lifted in 2023, they immediately applied to visit him in person and were approved. It is unclear when exactly in 2023 they visited him.
Mr. Liu’s family thought he would finish his four-year sentence by September 2023, but were heartbroken when he said that he still has four more years to go. At the time of this report, his family has never received any official notification of his indictment, trial, or sentencing.
Mr. Liu told his family that he was forced to do hard labor on a regular basis. Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, for one month he was forced to stand for long hours every day. He is now emaciated and his family is worried. They wonder if he will survive four more years in prison.
Prior 4-Year Prison Sentence
Mr. Liu has been repeatedly targeted for his faith over the years. He was arrested at work in September 2009 and given two years of forced labor. He suffered brutal torture at the Guo County Labor Camp.
Mr. Liu was arrested again on January 26, 2013 after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials in nearby Nanzheng County. The police gave him 15 days of administration detention at the Nanzheng County Detention Center.
When his daughter went to pick him up on February 11, 2013, the police refused to release him and said that his case had been changed to a criminal case by the local 610 Office and that he had been placed in criminal detention the day before.
Officers Ma Ping’an and Ren Yuping of the Hanzhong City Domestic Security Office pursued Mr. Liu’s prosecution, and the Nanzheng County Court tried him on May 14, 2013. That day, he was handcuffed and shackled and taken from the Nanzheng County Detention Center to the court, which is right across the street. The police also covered his head with a black hood.
His daughter did not recognize him until the police removed the black hood. She saw a white-haired and emaciated man, who looked nothing like the healthy father she knew before he was arrested.
Judge Zhang Chao deliberately chose not to inform Mr. Liu’s lawyer of his hearing. Instead he appointed a lawyer to enter a guilty plea for him. Mr. Liu testified in his own defense but was repeatedly interrupted by Zhang.
Zhang later sentenced Mr. Liu to four years in Weinan Prison, where he was tortured and forced to do hard labor from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.
Mr. Liu was released on January 26, 2017, only to be arrested four years later and given a second prison term.
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