TORONTO—Lin Mingli arrived from China on New Year’s Day, greeted by a brother he hasn’t seen for over a decade because one or the other was in prison—sometimes even the same prison but kept separate.

“When I saw him at the airport, my heart was so excited,” said Mingli of his brother Lin Shenli.

But Mingli said he was just as excited by the crowd of people waiting there to greet him, some holding large Falun Dafa banners and two holding smaller placards.

One placard read “Thank You Canada, for Rescuing MingLi, the other “Welcome Mingli, victim of persecution of Falun Gong.”

The crowd was mainly practitioners of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa). Mingli hadn’t seen more than two or three fellow practitioners together for a very long time.

In China, there are still many Falun Gong practitioners who are still suffering.— Lin Mingli

“I just felt safe when I landed. When I see the practitioners, when I see my brother … I feel very dear,” he said.

“In China you have the risk of being arrested and thrown into jail at any time. You don’t have any safety,” he added, explaining why practitioners rarely gather in China.

On this day, Mingli’s face has a friendly glow; he seems calm even with all the fuss at his arrival. Moments after a hug from his brother, who beams a smile and then steps back, reporters rush to ask Mingli about his travails.

‘Unimaginable torture’

Since the Chinese Communist Party started its persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mingli recounted how he had been kidnapped by police three times, forced to attend brain-washing class, and jailed twice.

He was tortured, separated from his family, and lived with the constant knowledge that signing a letter renouncing Falun Gong—and its fundamental requirement to cultivate truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—would free him from jail but violate his most deeply held belief.

He said the Chinese Communist Party uses every possible torture method to break Falun Gong practitioners and force them to sign the repentance letters.

He shakes a bit and squeezes his eyes shut when questions come about his imprisonment in China. His brother passes him a napkin to wipe away the tears.

“In China, there are still many Falun Gong practitioners who are still suffering,” he said.

He speaks of days of sleep deprivation and other torture. He said there are some very common experiences that he’d witnessed other practitioners suffer as well.

“Every time you are arrested, what you have to first experience is savage beating. The beating is severe,” he said through a translator in a later interview.

He said prison guards wrap the practitioners’ heads in carpet and then beat them with sticks.

“If they don’t wrap your head, within just a few times you’ll be beaten to death,” he said.

The beatings leave victims unable to hear or see clearly, their five senses impaired, he explained.

“They strip you naked, tie you up with five ropes, then beat you with bamboo sticks.”

The beatings and sleep deprivation are used in tandem to break down the mental fortitude of practitioners who refuse to renounce their faith.

“They ask if you will write a letter of repentance. If you don’t, then they continue the beating. This lasts one to two months,” he said, until the victim reaches their limit.

All the while, police continuously play anti-Falun Gong material through a loudspeaker, he said.

“Too many Falun Gong practitioners suffer unimaginable torture,” he said of the others still in the prisons and labour re-education centres in China.

Mingli said he saw a practitioner beaten with an electric baton until he lost control of his bowels and passed out. He was taken to the hospital. Another practitioner was beaten until his scalp peeled away, but he wasn’t treated.

“My heart is really…” Eyes squeezed shut, holding back tears, he doesn’t finish the sentence.

Beginning a New Life

Mingli was first sent to labour re-education camp from 2001 to March 2003. In Oct 2005, he was kidnapped again, and jailed for six years.

He walked out of Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison in October 2011 and arrived in Canada on the first day of 2012 ready to begin a new life. He said it was impossible to think of his brother or home during his years in detention.

“Every day my thought was how I can survive another day. In my heart I told myself to believe in Dafa… There was no room to think of anything else.”

His trip to Canada wouldn’t have happened without support from the Canadian government, which included a helping hand from Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and ongoing support from Conservative MP Scott Reid, currently chair of Parliament’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights.

Kenney took action for Mingli as far back as 2005, writing as a regular MP to the Chinese ambassador, calling for Mingli’s release.

Shenli was rescued to Canada with similar help years earlier. Liberal MP Irwin Cotler acted as his pro bono legal counsel and helped secure his release from prison in 2002.

Both brothers were jailed for their belief in Falun Gong, a self-improvement practice based on cultivating truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance that has been outlawed and persecuted in China since 1999.

According to a 2005 United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture report, while torture is widespread in China, Falun Gong practitioners account for two-thirds of torture cases.

Mingli thanked the Canadian government and immigration officials as well as Scott Reid for his release.

“They have put in a lot of effort in rescuing me from the Chinese regime,” he said.