(Clearwisdom.net) On January 17, 2008, after nine months of illegal detention, Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Sui Yanzhang and Ms. Xu Yingjie, a married couple from Tonghua City, Jilin Province, were sentenced to seven and four years in prison, respectively. The Tonghua City Dongchang District People's Court issued the verdict. On May 6, 2008, the Medium Court rejected the couple's appeal and sustained the original verdict.
Mr. Sui Yanzhang is 45 years old. He is employed in the third section of the Tonghua City Railroad in Jilin Province. Due to the persecution of Falun Gong, he has been arrested several times. In addition, the Communist Party Committee authorities at his workplace and the police station have sent him to numerous brainwashing sessions.
In August 1999, Mr. Sui's supervisor, Jiang Feng, searched his work area and found a copy of the book Zhuan Falun and a cassette of Falun Gong exercise music. They subsequently sent him to a brainwashing center. Then on September 30, 1999, Mr. Sui Yanzhang was arrested by police from the Siping Railway Police Station, while waiting for the train. He was then transferred to police station personnel at his workplace. At the workplace, the police and his supervisors forced Mr. Sui to attend a "transformation" brainwashing session. Also present were Li Xiaofei, the police station chief, and Xiao Erji, the party secretary of his workplace.
In April 2002, the Communist Party Committee authorities at his workplace tried to force Mr. Sui to write the guarantee statement, promising to no longer practice Falun Gong, and reported him to the local police station. Mr. Sui Yanzhang had to leave home and become homeless to avoid the persecution. During that time, Song Desheng, a police officer from the Laozhan Police Station, in charge of the Qianfeng community, went with Ding, the director of the neighborhood committee, to Mr. Sui Yanzhang's home demanding his whereabouts. Later, police officer Chen Jingtao, again accompanied by Ding, went to his home to harass family members again. Before the CCP's Sixteenth Party Congress in October 2002, Chen Jingtao led five people from the 610 Office and the Political and Judiciary Committee to Mr. Sui Yanzhang's home, coercing his wife to tell him to "come home immediately." Mr. Sui's workplace also threatened his wife many times, stating that if Mr. Sui didn't report to work by November 4, 2002, then they would fire him.
On September 8, 2003, Mr. Sui Yanzhang was arrested by police officers from the Baihe Town Forestry Bureau Police Station in Antu County, Jilin Province. More than ten people tortured him from 4:00 p.m. to midnight that day. They beat him, humiliated him, hung him up by his handcuffed wrists, and slapped his face while his head was covered with a bag.
They cuffed and tied a rope around his hands, and lifted him up in the air. His entire body weight fell onto his shoulders, causing excruciating pain. They hung him in this position for as long as four hours. As a result, Mr. Sui Yanzhang sustained long-term injuries to his shoulders and elbows. However, two months later, Mr. Sui Yanzhang walked out of the detention center with righteous thoughts.
On April 19, 2007, Mr. Sui Yanzhang and his wife Ms. Xu Yingjie were together at home. They heard the balcony window on the second floor being hit by bricks twice. The first time the window was broken, and the second time the brick flew into the kitchen and made a big mess. They didn't move. In less than ten minutes, another window in their bedroom was smashed. They went downstairs to investigate. But as soon as they walked out of their building, police officers in hiding arrested them. Song Desheng, from the Laozhan Police Station, led more than ten police officers from the Domestic Security Division, including Jing Guiquan, Tian Yuenan, Han Dongqiang and Lin Taiyuan, to force Mr. Sui Yanzhang to the ground and drag him into a van. Three or four people carried Ms. Xu Yingjie into another van.
They held Mr. Sui Yanzhang and his wife on the fifth floor of the Domestic Security Division at the Tonghua City Police Department Dongchang District Substation. The police used two handcuffs on each of them, tied their feet together with ropes, and had them watched by two officers, Wei Jie and Liu Jie, from the Laozhan Police Station.
The next morning, police from the city 610 Office, the Domestic Security Division of the Dongchang District Police Department, and the Laozhan Police Station, along with Ding Chunxia, director of the Qianfeng Neighborhood Committee, took Mr. Sui Yanzhang's house key and illegally entered the home. They ransacked the premises and confiscated personal property worth more than 10,000 yuan, including a computer, two printers, a satellite receiver and Falun Gong truth-clarification materials.
In the afternoon, they interrogated Mr. Sui Yanzhang with torture. They slapped him and shocked him with electric batons. At 7:00 p.m., more than ten people, led by Jing Guiquan and Tian Yuenan, took off Mr. Sui Yanzhang's clothes, while four to five people held him down on the bed. Jing Guiquan held up an electric baton and said to Mr. Sui Yanzhang viciously, "What was said on Clearwisdom.net about how we torture you Falun Gong practitioners is all real. Today I'll let you taste it."
Jing Guiquan shocked Mr. Sui Yanzhang randomly with the electric baton. Mr. Sui's body shuddered with every touch. It was extremely painful, and his body was full of sweat and blisters. His wrists were cut by the handcuffs and bleeding. The police didn't stop shocking him until two hours later. They sent Mr. Sui Yanzhang to the Changliu Detention Center in Tonghua City at 11:00 p.m.
In the Changliu Detention Center, the police interrogated Mr. Sui, and tried to force him to reveal the identities of other practitioners and give up his belief. They didn't allow him to sleep for two days and nights. Afterwards, they only allowed him to sleep three to four hours a day. The detention center authorities refused his family members' attempts to visit every time, and lied to them, stating that the detention center was treating Mr. Sui well.
Mr. Sui Yanzhang and Xu Yingjie were given only two corn bread meals per day. Each meal consisted of corn bread and a thin soup with rotten vegetables. After being detained for nine months, the couple was sentenced to prison by the Dongchang District Court of Tonghua City. An appeal request was denied.
