(Minghui.org) It was confirmed by Minghui.org in mid-August 2024 that a Shulan City, Jilin Province, man has been secretly sentenced to 3.5 years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Yang Xingli was arrested on May 25, 2023, for writing messages about Falun Gong in public areas. He was detained for ten days and then released. Zhanqian Police Station officers arrested him again in July 2023 and held him at the Jilin City Detention Center. Shulan City is under the jurisdiction of Jilin City.

Minghui.org recently confirmed Mr. Yang’s secret sentencing and his subsequent appeal of the verdict. No other details about his case are available.

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Yang has been targeted for his faith. Since 1999, he has been repeatedly arrested and detained in labor camps and a psychiatric hospital. He was fired from his job for his faith and later moved to Yushu City in the same province for another job. He once suffered a mental breakdown due to the trauma from the persecution.

While serving an unknown term in Jiutai Forced Labor Camp, Mr. Yang was beaten and shocked with electric batons on March 20, 2002, as the labor camp was trying to achieve an 85% “transformation” rate of the practitioners, i.e., forcing them to renounce Falun Gong.

Mr. Yang was arrested again in 2008 and taken to Jiutai Forced Labor Camp. He was forced to sit on a small stool for up to 18 hours a day, while the inmates constantly beat and kicked him, as well as stabbing him in the back with needles. They also covered his head with a lunch box and pounded on it. He sustained severe injuries and was unable to turn over in bed.

Torture reenactment: Stabbing with needles