(Minghui.org) A 75-year-old Benxi City, Liaoning Province resident was sentenced to 3.5 years on April 25, 2025 for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.

Mr. Xu Chunxue, a farmer of Korean ethnicity, was reported by villager Zhang Yuwu on the evening of May 12, 2024, for putting up Falun Gong posters on utility poles. A group of plainclothes officers ransacked his home later that night and confiscated his Falun Gong books and informational materials. He was put under criminal detention by the Benxi County Police Department on May 22 and released on bail on May 29, 2024.

The Mingshan District Procuratorate indicted Mr. Xu on April 10, 2025 and moved his case to the Mingshan District Court.

The police constantly harassed Mr. Xu at home. The mental distress caused him to develop a severe heart condition. While he was in an unconscious state, prosecutor Zhang Jian went to the hospital to depose him. Zhang promised to clear Mr. Xu of prosecution if he pleaded guilty, given his advanced age and poor health. His family was misled and signed the guilty plea on his behalf.

On April 10, 2025, judges Li Gongke, Zhang Yifan and Bai Chunyan, court clerk Zhang Yinan, and prosecutor Zhang showed up at Mr. Xu’s home and held a hearing of his case there. When the judges announced on April 25, 2025 to sentence Mr. Xu to 3.5 years with a 10,000-yuan fine, his family realized that they had been deceived by prosecutor Zhang. They appealed with the Benxi City Intermediate Court. The case was registered on June 6, 2025, and judge Liu Liang was assigned to it.

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Xu has been targeted for his faith. His home was ransacked on November 19, 2015, by Yang Tianshuai, chief of Qinghecheng Town Police Station, and three other officers, while Mr. Xu was not at home. When Mr. Xu went to the police station on December 3 that year to seek the return of his personal items, they arrested him and gave him ten days at the Benxi County Lockup.

Mr. Xu was arrested again on December 4, 2016, after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police raided his home in the afternoon. His family members were pushed to the ground when they tried to stop the police. He was held at the Huangshan Detention Center and sentenced to three years by the Benxi County Court in 2017. He was released in November 2019.