(Minghui.org) A 37-year-old man in Julu County, Hebei Province, was secretly sentenced to five years for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Mr. Lu Gang’s family was only allowed to visit him once since his arrest on July 17, 2023, and not given any updates of his case status until June 14, 2024, when they were notified of his prison transfer.
Mr. Lu was admitted to the Fourth Branch of the Jidong Prison Administration Bureau (which has nine branches in total) on May 7, 2024. He was re-assigned to the Fifth Branch twenty days later. The chief of the Yantuan Township Police Station called his family on June 14, 2024, to tell them about his five-year prison sentence and admission to the Jidong Prison Administration Bureau. The chief, however, refused to reveal which prison branch Mr. Lu was being held.
Mr. Lu’s father called all nine prison branches and no one except the last branch answered the phone. Only then did the older man find out about his son’s whereabouts.
Mr. Lu called his family on July 28, 2024, and said he was forcibly carried into a vehicle and taken to the Fourth Branch of the Jidong Prison Administration Bureau on May 7, 2024. He refused to go inside the prison and officer Yang Ruiqing and a few others stomped on his feet and shocked him with electric batons. Once inside, he was pepper sprayed and again shocked with electric batons.
Mr. Lu’s loved ones told him that they had not been given any updates about his case status, including when he was indicted, tried, or sentenced. They proceeded to hire a lawyer to appeal his verdict.
The lawyer went to the Fifth Branch of the Jidong Prison Administration Bureau on the morning of September 20, 2024, and requested to see him. The guards rejected the request on the spot and still used various excuses to not grant a meeting when the lawyer returned in the afternoon. The lawyer warned the guards that he reserved the legal right to sue them for breaking the law. Only then was he allowed to see Mr. Lu.
Mr. Lu initially did not dare to say what he went through since his arrest as a guard was monitoring the meeting. The lawyer encouraged him to stand up for himself. He then recounted what torture he suffered on the day of his prison admission. The guard immediately threatened to give him two days of solitary confinement.
Mr. Lu was previously arrested on March 9, 2016, and later sentenced to five years. When he was released one year early in 2020, his wife divorced him and gained sole custody of their son. His mother fell ill and became incapacitated due to the mental distress of worrying about him. After his latest arrest on July 17, 2023, she became so distraught upon learning of his hunger strike in custody and precarious condition that she also refused to eat or drink. Her already frail health quickly deteriorated and she is now in serious condition.
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