(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on Henan Province’s involvement in arresting and sentencing out-of-province Falun Gong practitioners for exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of their faith. The website now learned that Shanxi Province sentenced a Hebei native last year for posting Falun Gong information on social media.
Hebei Native Arrested in Guangdong Province by Shanxi Police
Mr. Li Hongtao, a 48-year-old native of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, was sentenced to three and a half years by the Taiyuan City Court in Shanxi Province. He filed an appeal but was rejected. The appeals judge said to him, “We don’t need to follow the law when it comes to dealing with you Falun Gong people.” He was transferred from the Taiyuan City Detention Center to the strict management team in Jinzhong Prison in Shanxi Province on October 9, 2023. Five months later, he was reassigned to Ward No. 2.
This is not the first time that Mr. Li has been targeted for his faith. He was fired from his engineer job at China Railway Group Limited after going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in 2001. He was arrested again in 2010 and sentenced to four years. After he was released, he moved to Luhe County, Guangdong Province to do odd jobs. He was arrested at work in Luhe at around 10:30 a.m. on April 20, 2023. The last message he texted his friend was, “Government officials are after me.” His friend managed to find out later that he was arrested by police from Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. They targeted him after spotting him post information about Falun Gong in WeChat groups.
Shanxi Resident Arrested and Sentenced Too
Mr. Zhang Bing, a resident of Shanxi Province, was also arrested around the same time as Mr. Li for a similar reason: he once posted a song composed by Falun Gong practitioners in his WeChat groups. The same Taiyuan City Court sentenced him to 3.5 years and he was also admitted to the Jinzhong Prison. He is currently held in Ward Ten.
Prior to his latest sentencing, Mr. Zhang was previously sentenced to two years for upholding his faith.
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