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Academy of Science Graduate Student Hong Wei Is Secretly Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison
(Clearwisdom.net) In the summer of 2003, Mr. Hong Wei, a graduate of
Beijing University and a graduate student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences'
Microbiology Institute, was secretly sentenced to ten years in prison for
allegedly "disturbing the public order." He is currently jailed in a
Chongqing City prison. Mr. Hong Wei used to live in Pishan County, near Chongqing City, and began
practicing Falun Gong in 1994. He is known for his willingness to help others,
and is widely regarded by his classmates as a good person. In 1998, after
receiving his Bachelor of Science degree with excellent grades from Beijing
University, he was permitted to directly enter the postgraduate program at the
Chinese Academy of Sciences' Microbiology Institute without taking any
qualifying exams. On April 25, 1999, Hong Wei went with fellow practitioners to Zhongnanhai [the
government complex in Beijing] to appeal for Falun Dafa. When the
persecution first began on July 20, 1999, Mr. Hong persisted in his practice of
Falun Gong. In early September 1999, Mr. Hong, with fellow Academy graduate
student Li Xiaodong and a third practitioner, were practicing the Falun Gong
exercises outdoors at the Zhongguancun Sports Grounds, near their dormitory.
Acting on a tip, the police arrested and jailed the three practitioners at the
Qinghe Detention Center for over thirty days, claiming that the trio's
exercising had constituted an "illegal rally." They were imprisoned
without warm clothing, with the cold weather season quickly approaching, and
were not released until after China's National Day (October 1). After Mr. Hong returned from the detention center, the Academy authorities
and officers from the local police station kept a close watch on him. They
regularly detained him during so-called "sensitive periods" and
national holidays. Hong Wei was an "important target" on their
blacklist, and because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, they made several
futile attempts at brainwashing him. In January 2000, after one of his several
arrests, the Microbiology Institute suspended him. The authorities manipulated
Mr. Hong's relationship with his long widowed father, by twice making his father
travel to Beijing in order to pressure him to renounce Falun Gong. This caused
the elder Mr. Hong to become ill from worry and stress. In October 2000, Hong
Wei was summarily dismissed from the Institute. To avoid police harassment, he
was forced to become homeless and lead a difficult life moving from place to
place. In late 2001 or early 2002, Mr. Hong was again arrested. In the summer of
2003, after having been detained without charges for over a year, Hong Wei was
unjustly accused of "disturbing the public order," and was secretly
given a ten-year sentence at a Chongqing City prison.
Posting date: 4/9/2004 |