Retired Teacher from Zhongqing City Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

Name: Lei Zhengxia
Gender: Male
Age: 65
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Retired teacher

Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 2nd, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Baihelin Detention Centre in Shapingba District
City: Chongqing
Province: Sichuan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, beatings, imprisonment

On November 11th, 2009, the Shapingba District Court in Chongqing City put on trial Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Lei Zhengxia, a 65-year-old retired teacher. The judge sentenced Mr. Lei to three years imprisonment for talking about Falun Gong to students in his small restaurant and for having Falun Gong materials in his home.

Mr. Lei is a retired teacher from the Fengmingshan Middle School in the Shapingba District. Prior to practising Falun Gong, Mr. Lei suffered from various diseases such as gastroptosis and neurodermatitis, and these diseases all disappeared once he started practising. After the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20th, 1999, Mr. Lei has been arrested and detained on numerous occasions.

In the summer of 2008, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials from Fengmingshan Middle School collaborated with the Xinqiao Police Station to arrest him for the sixth time. They also arrested Mr. Lei's wife and their adopted daughter. On one occasion, the CCP commissar of the Xinqiao Police Station, Ou Lichang, instructed a police officer to brutally beat Mr. Lei at his home. Mr. Lei's internal organs were injured and he couldn't move. He was then sent to the Baihelin Detention Centre in the Shapingbao District.

The staff at the detention centre were afraid that Mr. Lei would die and sent him to the Chongqing Tumour Hospital for emergency treatment.

Even though Mr. Lei was in critical condition, police officers were sent to the hospital to monitor him 24 hours a day. He didn't show any improvement, even after emergency treatment. When the medical expenses offered by the Xinqiao Police Station and the Shapingba District Domestic Security Division to treat Mr. Lei had been expended, the hospital stopped providing medical treatment for him.

Mr. Lei's godson went to the hospital to pick him up. To avoid harassment from the police, they rented an apartment where they were able to study the Falun Gong teachings and practise the Falun Gong exercises. Mr. Lei's health soon recovered.

On April 2nd, 2009, Mr. Lei went to Fengmingshan Middle School to give his wife some money and other things. He was then followed to the rental apartment in Zhangjiawang by police officers Chen Linxiao and Shi Chuanlin from the Xinqiao Police Station. He was arrested and detained at the Baihelin Detention Centre in Shapingba District.

At the beginning of May 2009, the Xinqiao Police Station reported him to the Shapingba District Procuratorate, but the case was withdrawn on the basis of insufficient evidence. In June, the Xinqiao Police Station fabricated evidence against Mr. Lei and reported him to the Shapingba District Procuratorate for a second time.

On November 11th, 2009, the Shapingba District Court sentenced Mr. Lei to three years imprisonment. The judge claimed that a student who ate at the small restaurant owned by Mr. Lei and his wife reported him to the police for talking about Falun Gong. He was then given three years in prison for "undermining the implementation of the law."

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/11/20/212972.html