(Minghui.org) A 57-year-old resident of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, is facing indictment for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. He Pengfei was arrested at home on May 22, 2024, by officers from the Mawei District Domestic Security Division. They took him to the Fuzhou City Second Detention Center where he was put in cell 211. His case is now resting with the Minqing County Procuratorate with prosecutor Cai Xiaoqin assigned to it. Minqing is under the administration of Fuzhou.
This is not the first time that Mr. He has been targeted for his faith. He was previously jailed for five and a half years and was released in December 2020. Upon returning home, he learned that he had been fired from his job in March 2017. His 35 years of service were also wiped out from his pension calculation. He lost health insurance and other benefits as well. Besides the financial persecution, he also faced frequent harassment from the local police. From January to April 2021 alone, he was harassed three times but he held firm to his faith.
Arrested in 2015 and Sentenced to 5.5 Years
Mr. He joined the army in 1986 and retired in December 2002. Years of training and service in the military took a toll on his health and he developed numerous illnesses, including cervical spondylosis, liver cysts, lung shadows, urticaria, and prostatic hyperplasia. After he took up Falun Gong in 2011, all his symptoms disappeared and he also learned to be a better person. He excelled at his civilian job at the Fuzhou Culture, Radio, Television, Press and Publication Bureau and was promoted to a director position in 2013.
In his spare time, Mr. He worked hard to raise awareness of the persecution. He was arrested on June 7, 2015, at the entrance to his apartment complex. A group of plainclothes officers punched him and knocked him down. His face bled and his white shirt and tank top were stained with blood. The police dragged him to a cruiser and drove him to the Jinshan Police Station. His blood-stained shirt and tank top were seized so he could not use them as evidence for police brutality.
The police raided his home and confiscated two computers, one printer, one CD burner, a laptop, three cell phones, one portable hard drive, hundreds of DVDs, thousands of yuan in cash, and Falun Gong books and informational materials.
Mr. He’s wife and daughter were also taken to the Jinshan Police Station after the police raid. They were soon released but traumatized by the terrifying experience.
At 9 a.m. on June 8, 2015, deputy chief Huang from the Fuzhou City Police Department and deputy chief Li from the Cangshan District Police Department led a group of people to interrogate Mr. He. They threatened him that the Central Political and Legal Affairs Committee had noted his case as a special one.
Huang said to Mr. He, “You are a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Don’t you know that the Party governs everything?”
Mr. He responded that he had quit the CCP after learning its true colors in persecuting innocent citizens. He urged Huang and his subordinates to sever ties with the CCP as well.
Huang and his people left. Not long after, one of them came back and yelled at Mr. He, “Why does it feel like you were interrogating us, not us interrogating you?”
Mr. He replied, “I am just explaining the facts to you.”
While held at the police station, Mr. He was restrained on a bench with both hands cuffed all the time. The air conditioner in the interrogation room was turned to the maximum and even the interrogating officers kept sneezing after being there for one hour. Mr. He, however, was stripped to his undergarment. The police couldn’t find the air conditioner remote and had to step outside to warm up before coming back inside to resume the interrogation of Mr. He. They also took turns doing the interrogation work while Mr. He was held there for two full days.
When he refused to answer questions, officer Yang threatened to recommend sentencing him to at least eight years in prison.
The police transferred Mr. He to the Fuzhou City Second Detention Center at around 4 a.m. on June 10, 2015. He was interrogated many more times there but he always refused to sign any paperwork.
The Cangshan District Court issued a subpoena on May 3, 2016. Judge Liu Wenfeng deposed Mr. He the next day at the detention center. He stood trial on May 11 and was sentenced to five and a half years on September 29. He filed an appeal and the Fuzhou City Intermediate Court ruled on December 8 to uphold his original verdict.
Mr. He was transferred to the Fuqing Prison on December 22, 2016.
Abused in Prison
On March 5, 2017, Mr. He refused to comply with guard Yu Lifeng’s order and was put in the strict management team that was designated to persecute steadfast practitioners. Two inmates were assigned to monitor him around the clock but he held firm to his faith.
Once Mr. He questioned what kind of people guard He Fang (no relation) wanted to turn him into in trying to make him renounce his faith. He said that Falun Gong taught him to live by the principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” and that giving up his belief would mean he had to do the opposite, namely, “Falsehood-Evilness-Struggle.” Without saying a word in response, the guard He slapped him in the face so hard that he stumbled and fell. Guard He slapped him two other times and knocked one of his incisors out.
Guard Chen Zhimin took Mr. He to the prison hospital in 2017 and had the doctor there prescribe multiple medications. Mr. He refused to take the pills as he was healthy. Chen instructed several inmates to hold him down and pry open his mouth to force-feed him the pills. Guard Huang Yigan videotaped the whole scene.
The inmates were instructed to only give Mr. He meager amounts of food to eat and he often woke up from hunger in the middle of the night. He became very weak and needed to hold onto the wall to walk. His vision also became blurry and he struggled to focus and often uttered nonsense at night after nightmares.
The guards later forced Mr. He to stand for long hours every day for several months straight. After that, they switched to the squatting torture, starting with one hour the first day and gradually increasing it to more than ten hours every day. Mr. He lost feeling in his legs after the daily long-time squatting, yet guard Zhu Xinbin once poured cold water on his hips during the winter.
Mr. He continued to be abused until his release on December 7, 2020.
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