(Minghui.org) A Longde County, Ningxia Province resident was recently sentenced to three years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Liu Sizu, 70, was arrested on December 30, 2021. His computer and other personal items were confiscated. The police submitted his case to the Xixia District Procuratorate in late March 2022. His family recently confirmed that he has been convicted by the Xixia District Court. He is currently held at the Yinchuan City Detention Center.
Since the onset of the persecution, Mr. Liu has been sentenced three times. In addition to the latest prison sentence, he was given three years with four years’ probation by the Longde County Court on October 29, 2003 and then another term of three years with five years’ probation by the Xingqing District Court on October 13, 2009.
In recent years, Mr. Liu has been harassed several times. His home was ransacked on November 12, 2016 and again on May 10, 2021. He was also given seven days of administrative detention after the May 2021 harassment.
Below is Mr. Liu’s own account of his experience in practicing Falun Gong and the persecution he has endured.
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I took up Falun Gong in October 1996 at the recommendation of a friend. A week later, I began to have body purification reactions, including diarrhea and pus oozing out on the back of my neck, which lasted four days. After a month, the lumbar disc herniation that had bothered me for years disappeared.
I had a very bad temper in the past. I was very competitive and cared much about my vested interests. By disciplining myself with Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I learned to be tolerant and considerate.
My son was bullied by his teacher one day. If it were in the past, I would have had a big fight with the teacher. But this time, I reminded myself to handle this matter as a Falun Gong practitioner. Instead of allowing my anger to get the best of me, I resolved the issue with the teacher peacefully.
Practicing Falun Gong also helped me quit smoking, drinking and gambling. My relationships with my family, friends and coworkers all improved. People who knew me were all amazed to see the changes in me.
On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party, ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. In December 1999, Zhang Zhizhong, the secretary of the Longde County Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) summoned over 30 local practitioners to his office. He ordered us to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. He threatened to force our workplaces to fire us and suspend our pay if we didn’t comply. I explained to him how I benefited from Falun Gong and affirmed my determination to continue practicing it. Zhang appeared to be angry. Later that day, we were all let go.
In late January 2000, Shen Duxin and Liang Lianshen of the Longde County Disabled Persons’ Federation where I worked, as well as judge Liu from Longde County, came to my home. They repeated that I wasn’t allowed to practice Falun Gong and that I must write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. They said that if I didn’t do it, they would have a hard time reporting to their supervisors. I still refused to comply.
For the next seven days, they came every day to harass me. They stayed at my home for four hours each time and repeatedly emphasized the order from above. I kept telling them the benefits I gained by practicing Falun Gong.
Three days after they stopped harassing me, Ren Rong, the deputy mayor of Longde County, and Du Guoqiang, the deputy head of the Longde County Police Department, came to harass me again. They said that Zhang, the PLAC secretary, had arranged for them to monitor me and prevent me from going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. If I went, they would lose their jobs. Since then, I noticed that I was being followed whenever I went out. Several other officers also came to harass me.
My workplace, the Longde County Disabled Persons’ Federation, stopped my salary in November 2001. As of December 2002, they started to issue half of my salary. It wasn’t until July 2007 that I started to get my full salary again.
Du Weihai, the head of the Delong County Domestic Security office, arrested me on June 22, 2003. He interrogated me for a day. He beat me, tore my clothes and didn’t allow me to sleep. I refused to answer his question about whether I distributed Falun Gong materials. I was released on bail the next day.
The police arrested me again and took me to a hotel on July 10, 2003. They questioned how I and another practitioner, Mr. Zhang Sixi, worked together to print Falun Gong materials. (They had arrested Mr. Zhang before me and forced him to reveal information about me through torture.) Three hours later, they found a printer that Mr. Zhang and I bought together, which I kept at my relative’s home. My computer and some blank DVDs were confiscated as well.
Although I was allowed to go home shortly after, Du took me into custody on July 23. I was held at the Longde County Detention Center for 108 days. The Longde County Court sentenced me to three years with four years’ probation on October 29, with the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong. I was released on November 9, 2003.
I was arrested again on April 17, 2009 at the hospital where I was working. The police searched my home and confiscated my computer, a portable drive and some Falun Gong informational materials. They took me to the Yinchuan City Domestic Security Office and interrogated me for two hours about where the materials came from. I was taken to the Yinchuan City Detention Center in the evening.
The detention center guards forced me to assemble lighters, for nearly 14 hours a day. I wasn’t allowed to sleep if I didn’t finish the quota. After six months of detention, the Xingqing District Court sentenced me to three years with five years’ probation on October 13, also with the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization.” I was released on October 24, 2009.