(Minghui.org) A Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province resident has been admitted to Jixi City Prison on November 17, 2020 to serve time for his faith in Falun Gong, after his appeal was rejected by the higher court.

A prison guard recently called Mr. Zhong Guoquan’s family and demanded that they pay for his insulin shots. Having developed multiple diseases since his arrest earlier this year, including severe diabetes, Mr. Zhong has lost his vision and is having insulin shots every day.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Zhong, 71, was reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong on March 4, 2020. The police tracked him down through surveillance cameras and then arrested him.

After four months of detention at Jixi City Detention Center, Mr. Zhong was hospitalized on July 6. He was found to have severe diabetes, kidney malfunction, stroke, high blood pressure, and many other conditions.

Mr. Zhong was tried by the Mishan City Court on August 11 and sentenced to three years and six months on August 18, with a 10,000 yuan fine.

He soon appealed the verdict. But his family found the Mishan City Court hasn’t submitted his appeal to the Jixi City Intermediate Court by October 9, nine days before the deadline of his appeal window.

Mr. Zhong’s family contacted the Mishan Court on October 10. Cai Hongli, the judge who sentenced him, said she had forwarded the appeal to the higher court at 10 a.m.

Mr. Zhong’s family went to the higher court on the next day to follow up. His case had indeed arrived, but the receptionist said it hadn’t been assigned to a judge and gave them two numbers to follow up with.

Mr. Zhong’s family called Liu Yang, a judge of the intermediate court, on October 14, after confirming he was handling his case. They requested to have an open hearing, and Liu replied that they didn’t have the right to make such a request. Mr. Zhong’s family then requested to represent him in court and Liu asked them to deliver their representation documents to the court on the next day.

When Mr. Zhong’s family went to the higher court on October 15, the security personnel didn’t let them enter the court, but had them leave the documents after talking with judge Liu over the phone.

On October 28, the judge ruled to uphold his sentence.