(Minghui.org) A 74-year-old man in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, completed a five-year prison term on March 21, 2026, for his faith in Falun Gong.
Mr. Chen Zongguo, an electrician by training, took up Falun Gong in 1998 and soon recovered from severe stomach disorders and rheumatism. After the communist regime started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, he held firm to his faith and became a target of the Chinese Communist Party authorities.
At around 2 p.m. on March 18, 2021, about 40-50 officers from the Pengzhou City Police Department and its subordinate Mengyang Town Police Station broke into Mr. Chen’s home in Xiangyang Town and arrested him. His 99-year-old father had just passed away at the time. His arrest further traumatized his 88-year-old mother.
The police also confiscated from Mr. Chen’s home 67 Falun Gong books, a computer, laminator, paper cutter, media players, several printers, and nearly 25,000 yuan in cash. They took him to the Mengyang Town Police Station. The Xiangyang Town Police Station in Guanghan City also briefly detained his wife and questioned her as to which other practitioners her husband had contact with. She refused to answer and was slapped in the face.
It was unclear why Pengzhou City, overseen by Chengdu City, got involved when Mr. Chen lived in Guanghan City, which is under the administration of Deyang City. An insider revealed it was likely because he helped people in Pengzhou City install satellite dishes to receive uncensored overseas news exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.
Mr. Chen was taken to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center located in Chengdu City on March 19, 2021. The police interrogated him there and demanded to know where he got the printers and other materials. He refused to answer. The police instructed professionally trained henchmen to beat him for two days in a row. He couldn’t stand afterwards and was carried back to his cell.
Mr. Chen was transferred to the Pengzhou City Detention around March 24, 2021, and then moved to the Chengdu City Detention Center in April 2022. The Pengzhou City Court tried him on June 21, 2022, and sentenced him to five years with a 10,000-yuan fine at the end of the hearing. Presiding Judge Wang Li, judges Li Yin and Xiong Yi, as well as clerk Pan Jialin signed the verdict.
Mr. Chen was admitted to the Jiazhou Prison located in Leshan City on December 6, 2022. He was held in the Sixth Division, the Fourth Division, and the Eighth Division at different times during his imprisonment. The guards ordered him to study materials slandering Falun Gong and forced him to do hard labor.
He was released on March 21, 2026.
Related Reports:
After a Decade of Displacement, Sichuan Man Arrested and Held Incommunicado
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