(Minghui.org) A 51-year-old man in Xuchang City, Henan Province, was recently sentenced to seven years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999.
Mr. Xie Huijian was arrested in 2023. He has been admitted to Xinmi Prison to serve time. Details about his arrest, indictment, trial, and sentencing aren’t clear.
Mr. Xie was interested in Buddhism in his teens. When he encountered Falun Gong, he was impressed by its principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Because he refused to give up his faith when the persecution started in 1999, he was repeatedly arrested. Prior to his latest prison sentence, he has already served one and a half years in a forced labor camp and five years in the same Xinmi Prison.
Past Persecution
Forced to Live Away from Home to Avoid Arrest
Mr. Xie and his father, Mr. Xie Guoqiang, also a Falun Gong practitioner, were arrested at the end of 2000 by officer Wang Jianhui and others from the Zhangqiao Village Police Station. Both the father and son were held at the Yanling County Detention Center for over a month.
To avoid further persecution, Mr. Xie Huijian was forced to live away from home in the summer of 2001. In the winter of 2002, he ran into officer Wang. Although he escaped, Wang frequently searched his parents’ home after that, sometimes breaking in in the middle of the night.
In 2003, Wang connived with Zhang Huichao, captain of the Political Security Squad of the Yanling County Police Department, and Miao Zhongkai, deputy instructor of the Political Security Squad of the Xuchang City Police Department, to frame Mr. Xie as a “serial killer.” They posted his photo around town and spread rumors about him through loud speakers in local villages. They also offered big rewards for information leading to his arrest.
On September 2, 2003, the local media reported that the real “serial killer” had been arrested. Only then did the locals realize that Mr. Xie had been framed.
A Year and a Half of Forced Labor
Mr. Xie was arrested on January 16, 2006. After over a month in the Yanling County Detention Center, he was given a 1.5-year labor camp term and was transferred to the Henan Province Third Forced Labor Camp in Xuchang City in April 2006.
The labor camp held a brainwashing session in late 2006. Because Mr. Xie refused to renounce Falun Gong, guard Shen Jianwei deprived him of sleep and forced him to stand facing the wall and squat for long hours.
The guards also ordered Mr. Xie to pledge allegiance to the CCP’s red flag. He refused. Guard Zhao Zhimin threatened to deprive everyone in his cell of sleep and cancel everyone’s term reductions if he didn’t comply. Yang Guoqi, the head inmate in his cell and a drug offender, forced Mr. Xie to do 800 push-ups.
Guard Zhao also used the tying torture on Mr. Xie and another practitioner in his 50s, as well as kicking them and slapping them in the face. Guard Shen soaked the rope so that it would be tighter and cause more pain when he tied them up. He shouted at them, “You will go to your grave with the marks these ropes will leave!”
Torture re-enactment: Tying up
Sentenced to Five Years
Mr. Xie was working in Yuzhou City on December 21, 2008, when he was arrested by Xie Yuxiao, Geng Songtao, and Zhao Naicheng of the Yuzhou City Domestic Security Office and Ran Xueling of the Shenhou Police Station.
He was later sentenced to five years and served time in Xinmi Prison. He was released on January 3, 2014.
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