(Minghui.org) A 26-year-old man in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province was taken to the Dalian Prison on August 15, 2021 to serve a 5.5-year term for telling people how Falun Gong cured his depression.
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. Song Yucen’s father had a stroke in 2006 when he was 11. In the same year, his mother lost her job. He felt inferior to others and grew depressed.
After graduating from college, he was swindled out of 40,000 yuan looking for a job, worsening his depression. He was fired from his job in January 2019. He tried many things to cure his depression, but to no avail. He attempted suicide and ran away from home many times. The whole family suffered with him.
In despair, he remembered Falun Gong, which his grandfather had told him about when he was little. Two months after taking up the practice, he began to think sensibly and speak normally. He got over his depression.
Happy and excited, he went to a local hospital to tell other patients about his experience, only to be reported by a nurse and arrested on March 29, 2019. Officers of the Heping District Police Station ransacked his home and confiscated his two laptops, two flash drives and other personal belongings.
He was taken to the Heping District Detention Center on the next day. His family soon hired a lawyer for him. When the lawyer visited him at the detention center, he explained to the lawyer how he took up Falun Gong and why he wanted to tell people about it.
The Heping District Procuratorate approved Mr. Song’s arrest on April 30, 2019. The police submitted his case to the procuratorate on June 18. The prosecutor returned his case twice to the police, in late July and on October 17, respectively, due to insufficient evidence. After the police submitted his case for the third time on November 17, the prosecutor indicted him in December and moved his case to the Heping District Court.
Mr. Song was tried by the Heping District Court on June 16, 2020, and sentenced to 5.5 years on December 29, 2020.
He appealed with the Shenyang City Intermediate Court. The judge accepted his case on March 19, 2021 and ruled to uphold his original sentence on May 1.
Related report:25-Year-Old Sentenced to 5.5 Years for Telling Others How Falun Gong Cured His Depression
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
