(Minghui.org) A 65-year-old resident of Jinan City, Shandong Province, was sentenced to two years in January 2024 for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Mr. Wang Yuezhong is currently appealing the wrongful conviction.

Mr. Wang, a native of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, moved in with his daughter’s family in Jinan a few years back. On August 31, 2022, agents from the Huaiyin District Domestic Security Office and the Xishichang Police Station knocked on his daughter’s door and demanded to check the family’s COVID-19 test results. 

Mr. Wang believed them and opened the door, only to see the police barge in and raid the home without showing a search warrant. The officers confiscated his Falun Gong books and a large amount of household items. They also took away an article he wrote about how Falun Gong cured his severe heart disease, lumbar strain (injury to lower back), frequent colds and fevers, and stomach problems after he took up the practice in May 1996.

Mr. Wang’s daughter demanded to know the reason for her father’s arrest and the police said that they received a tip from Han Guangzhen, a resident living in Building 232 in Huaiyin District, who saw from his home surveillance videos that Mr. Wang distributed Falun Gong informational materials in the building.

The police released Mr. Wang on bail on September 1, 2022 after his daughter paid 3,000 yuan bail bond.

The Huaiyin District Police Department deceived Mr. Wang into going to their office on August 2, 2023 by claiming that they needed him to sign some paperwork to close his case. As soon as he arrived, they seized him and took him to a local detention center to serve a 14-day detention term. It was unclear whether they released him on the 15th day (August 16), but they submitted his case to the Huaiyin District Procuratorate on that day. The procuratorate issued an arrest warrant against him and later forwarded his case to the Changqing District Procuratorate, which has been designated to handle Falun Gong cases in Jinan. 

Mr. Wang stood trial at the Changqing District Court on December 19, 2023 and was sentenced to two years in January 2024.