(Minghui.org) A 60-year-old Lanzhou City, Gansu Province resident was sentenced to six years in prison and a 5,000-yuan fine on December 28, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong.
This is the third time Mr. Yang Xuegui has been sentenced since the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of his faith in July 1999. He was previously given eight years in 2002 and sentenced to another five-year term in 2018.
Mr. Yang’s latest arrest was on March 4, 2024, after he was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong on January 16, 2024. He was put in criminal detention the next day and issued a formal arrest warrant on March 15.
The Chengguan District Procuratorate later indicted Mr. Yang and charged him with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong. The prosecutor moved his case to the Chengguan District Court on June 7, 2024. He stood trial on August 23, 2024 and was convicted on December 28, 2024.
Mr. Yang has appealed the verdict. He is currently being held in the Lanzhou City Third Detention Center.
Mr. Yang joined the military in 1982 after finishing high school. He served during the Vietnam war as a signalman in 1986. Due to the humid environment in Vietnam, he developed psoriasis and retired from the military in October 1987. He started to work for the General Affairs Department Cadre of Lanzhou Second People’s Hospital in December 1987.
He developed a strange condition in 1995 that caused long-lasting cold-like symptoms and severe fatigue. He even had to wear thick pants in the summer. He tried various treatments, but with no improvement. He completely recovered only twenty days after he started practicing Falun Gong in 1996. He also quit smoking, drinking, and playing mahjong. His strained relationship with his wife improved as well.
Mr. Yang was first arrested on September 4, 2001. He appeared in the Qilihe Court in late August 2002, and was sentenced to an eight-year prison term. During the time he was held in Linxia Prison, Lanzhou Forced Labor Camp Hospital, and Lanzhou Prison, he was subjected to frequent beatings, verbal abuse, freezing, force feeding, and solitary confinement. The guards sometimes tied him to a bed in a spread-eagle position or forced him to wear a metal vest. He barely survived the torture and was released on September 11, 2009.
Mr. Yang was arrested again on September 14, 2016, while putting up a banner bearing information about Falun Gong near an overpass. He was sentenced to five years by the Chengguan District Court on February 2, 2018. He was merely skins and bones when released from Lanzhou Prison on September 14, 2021, and had extremely slow reactions. While he recovered by resuming Falun Gong practice, he was arrested again in March 2024 and sentenced to another six years.
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