Practitioner Guo Gang Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

Name: Guo Gang
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Address: Pingshan Town, Acheng District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 25th, 2008
Most recent place of detention: Hulan Prison, Harbin City
City: Harbin City
Province: Heilongjiang Province
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, extortion

When Mr. Guo Gang moved to southern China to work, he suffered from scabies all over his body due to the humidity. In 1998, he returned to his hometown of Harbin in Heilongjiang Province. He was told that practising Falun Gong could heal his scabies. He did just that, and his scabies went away completely shortly thereafter.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started suppressing Falun Gong in 1999. Because Mr. Guo Gang continued practising Falun Gong, he was arrested on December 29th, 1999 under the police assertion that he was "disrupting the administration of social order." He was held at the local detention centre.

On January 1st, 2000, Mr. Guo Gang and another Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. The authorities at the appeals office in Beijing began arresting people, so Guo Gang and other practitioners went to Tiananmen Square, where they were then arrested. Mr. Guo was taken to the Acheng District Harbin City Detention Centre. He was held for several months past the maximum detention period and in June 2001, he was sent to the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City for a year.

In order to force them to give up their beliefs, guards at the forced labour camp resorted to many despicable forms of brutality against Mr. Guo and other practitioners, using torture and psychological abuse. Mr. Guo Gang remained firm, however. After he again suffered from a severe case of scabies, Mr. Guo was granted medical leave and released in October of 2001.

To avoid harassment from the local police, Mr. Guo moved to another city to work and was not able to return to his home for many years. He finally returned just two years ago, and on January 25th, 2008, staff from the National Security Bureau along with policemen from Harbin City broke into his home. They arrested Mr. Guo and ransacked his home, stealing 1,300 yuan¹, a computer, a printer, three MP3 players, a telescope, a paper cutting knife, and several books including the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun. They also confiscated his driver's licence.

After being detained for more than four months, Mr. Guo Gang was tried at the Acheng District Court in June 2008. He was sentenced to five years in prison. He appealed, but his appeal was rejected and the original verdict was upheld.

Mr. Guo Gang was imprisoned in the Hulan Prison of Harbin City. He was first subjected to the "training unit" when he arrived at the prison, where they tortured him. His family went to the prison to visit him, but they were turned away. In November 2008, three months after Mr. Guo was sent to Hulan Prison, his family was finally allowed to see him, but they were not allowed to give him anything, not even some warm winter clothes.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/2/13/218096.html