(Minghui.org) A Beijing resident was recently sentenced to five years in prison for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Hou Jingwei was arrested in September 2019. The police ransacked his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books, laptops and printers. His wife was also arrested and held at the police station for one day. The authorities arranged some villagers to monitor his wife since then.

Mr. Hou was detained at the Tongzhou District Court. He has been transferred to Beijing No.2 Prison to serve time.

The judge also fined him 5,000 yuan. As his wife doesn’t work, the police and local village officials withheld the money from his family’s monthly low-income subsidy, which has caused them a lot of financial difficulty.

Prior to his latest term, Mr. Hou was incarcerated at the Xin’an Forced Labor Camp and Qianjin Prison in Beijing, also for practicing Falun Gong.