(Minghui.org) A 52-year-old resident of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, was sentenced to four and a half years and fined 30,000 yuan on November 12, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Cong Wei was arrested at work on May 9, 2024, by officers from the Hekouyanhai Police Station. They raided his home and confiscated his Falun Gong-related materials. He was taken to the Dalian City Detention Center the next day but was found to have high blood pressure so he was denied admission. The police then held him in a hotel. He managed to escape but was captured on May 15 and has since been held at the Dalian City Detention Center.
The Ganjingzi District Court held a virtual hearing of Mr. Cong’s case on October 12. His lawyer argued that no law in China has criminalized Falun Gong and that the State Press and Publication Administration lifted the ban on Falun Gong books in 2011. Instead of acknowledging the lack of legal basis for the persecution, the presiding judge Ni Shengjun instructed court clerk Sun Wei not to write down what the lawyer said.
Mr. Cong was convicted on November 12. He is currently appealing the guilty verdict with the Dalian City Intermediate Court.
Prior to his latest prison sentence, Mr. Cong was repeatedly persecuted for his faith. He was once given a two-year forced labor term and a 1.5-year prison term.
Tortured During Two-year Forced Labor Term (2000-2002)
Mr. Cong served a two-year term (November 2000 – November 2002) at the Dalian Labor Camp and endured horrific torture. On June 4, 2001, the guards stripped him and another practitioner, Mr. Liu Yonglai naked (Mr. Liu was tortured to death later that year), and cuffed their hands together, with them standing facing each other. The guards then shocked them each with six electric batons simultaneously all over their bodies, including their private parts. They shook violently, which caused their cuffs to tighten and cut deeply into their flesh. Both men bled profusely as a result.
Another time, Mr. Cong was subjected to another form of electric shock. The guards tied three electric batons to the back of a chair, and one baton to each of the chair’s two front legs. They then forced Mr. Cong to sit on the chair with his back against the three electric batons and his legs against the two other batons. There was a sixth electric baton pressed against his head. The guards turned on all six batons at the same time to shock him. They also used a seventh baton to shock his genitals. His body convulsed violently. He still has burn marks on his body.
Three More Arrests During 2004-2010, One Followed by a 1.5-year Prison Sentence
Mr. Cong was arrested at work on July 28, 2004 and detained for an unknown amount of time. His job was with a pharmaceutical company at the time.
Just after 4 a.m. on September 12, 2006, a group of officers from various police agencies opened Mr. Cong’s door with a master key and arrested him. They said the arrest was because he told the world how he was tortured.
Mr. Cong was held in a metal cage in the Jiaojinshan Police Station that day and was taken to the Dalian City Detention Center the following afternoon. The Ganjingzi District Court secretly tried him and sentenced him to one and a half years in prison.
While visiting a friend on April 20, 2010, Mr. Cong was arrested by officers from the Haimao Street Police Station.
Life Transformed by Falun Gong
Those who knew Mr. Cong couldn’t understand why the communist regime went after him for practicing Falun Gong, because the practice changed him and he became a better person.
Mr. Cong was an alcoholic and a heavy smoker. After he took up Falun Gong, he quit drinking and smoking and was able to take fame and personal interest lightly. His machismo used to cause a lot of tension with his wife as he insisted that a husband should never do any household chores. Falun Gong made him caring and considerate, and he started cleaning and cooking.
Mr. Cong also became a better son and son-in-law. When his parents-in-law were hospitalized in two different years, he visited them after work every day. The elderly couple’s fellow patients thought he was their son. After his own mother fell ill in their home province of Shandong, he took more than one month off work to care for her until she passed away. He covered all her medical bills and funeral cost, when his older brother and older sister refused to chip in. After their mother’s death, the two older siblings fought for her house, but Mr. Cong did not argue with them for his share.
As the IT manager at work, Mr. Cong developed a computer system with a cost of only 30,000 yuan and saved his company a lot of money (in the past when they had to use a vendor’s program, so it cost them more than 10,000 yuan every year). Later when other companies tried to use his system without his company’s knowledge and promised to give him huge commissions, he refused and said he could not fatten his own pocket at the expense of his employer.
Once the refrigerator at the workplace stopped working and Mr. Cong’s supervisor decided to throw it away. Mr. Cong purchased some parts using his own money and fixed it. He thought, if he could save some money for his company, why not? He said it was Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that taught him to always be considerate of others.
Related Reports:
The Sadistic Torture of Falun Dafa Practitioners in the Dalian Forced Labor Camp (Photos)
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