(Minghui.org) The Minghui website learned in early May 2024 that a 74-year-old man in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, had been sentenced to 1.5 years and fined 5,000 yuan for his faith in Falun Gong.
Mr. Lian Jing’s sentencing stemmed from his initial arrest in late March 2022. He talked to a tractor driver about the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong and was reported to police by the latter. Officer Jiang Feng and others from the Xinchengzi Police Station soon arrived to arrest him.
The police impounded Mr. Lian’s bicycle and confiscated the 3,000 yuan cash he had with him. They also searched their database using his ID number and found his son’s number associated with his profile. They released him and called his son, threatening that the case was not over yet.
Mr. Lian was arrested again on March 7, 2023, by officers from the Tiexi District Police Department. A local court sentenced him at an unknown date. His son had to borrow money to pay his court fine. Details of his indictment, trial, and sentencing remain to be investigated. It is also unclear where he is being held.
This is not the first time that Mr. Lian has been targeted for his faith. He was previously given two years of forced labor in 2002 and sentenced to three years in prison in 2016.
Decades-long Illnesses Gone After Practicing Falun Gong
Mr. Lian worked as a geologist before his retirement. The nature of his job required him to work outdoors most of the time. Once he was tasked with doing a geological survey in a mountainous area and had to climb to the top of a tall linden tree. The branch he was sitting on suddenly broke and he fell hard to the ground. He survived but sustained a severe concussion. In the years that followed, he was tormented by persistent dizziness and migraines. No medical treatment helped, but all his symptoms disappeared not long after he took up Falun Gong.
Mr. Lian also learned to be a more forgiving and considerate person by following Falun Gong’s principles. He was once hit by a tricycle outside his workplace. His colleagues surrounded the driver, a vegetable farmer, and demanded he compensate him. Mr. Lian struggled to get up and let the farmer go. He knew that it was not easy for the latter to make a living, much less give him any compensation.
Mr. Lian did Falun Gong exercises and soon recovered from his leg injuries. After the persecution began, he held firm to his faith and was targeted. He was given two years of forced labor in 2002 and released ahead of time after serving one year and three months.
He talked to the soldiers at a military base about Falun Gong on April 26, 2016 and was savagely beaten by them. They reported him to police and the Xinchengzi Police Station officers raided his home. The Shenbei New Area Court tried him on July 27, 2016 and sentenced him to three years shortly afterwards. He was admitted to the Benxi Prison in October 2016.
The prison guards subjected Mr. Lian to various forms of torture, including beatings, solitary confinement, burning with cigarette butts, electric shocks, and forced labor. He was released on April 26, 2019.
Related Report:
Shenyang City Geologist Sentenced to Three Years During Secret Trial
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