Deputy County Official in Shandong Province on Hunger Strike to Protest Imprisonment and Torture

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Deputy County Official in Shandong Province on Hunger Strike to Protest Imprisonment and Torture

May 31, 2011 | By a Clearwisdom correspondent in Shandong Province, China

Name: Jiang Guobo (姜国波)
Gender: Male
Age: 49
Address: Kuiwen District, Weifang City, Shandong Province
Occupation: County government official
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 15, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jinan Prison, Shandong Province (山东省济南监狱)
City: Jinan
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Interrogations, stripped naked, soaked in freezing water, water sprayed up nose, sleep deprivation, force-feeding, death bed torture

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Jiang Guobo is a county level official from Weifang City, Shandong Province. After being illegally arrested, detained, and sent to a forced labor camp, he was arrested again in February 2009. This time he was sentenced to five years of imprisonment. For the last two and a half years, he held periodic hunger strikes to protest the persecution. He is hospitalized due to the abuse he has suffered.

During his detention in the Weifang Detention Center, Mr. Jiang Guobo was subjected to a variety of torture methods, including assault, verbal abuse, exposure to the sun during extremely hot days, sleep deprivation, being put on a “death bed,” and forced-feeding. The long-term physical torture made him extremely weak and emaciated. He was taken to the prison hospital and has been there since last year.

Mr. Jiang Guobo was born in Weihai City, Shandong Province in March 1963. After college, he held a deputy county official position and became a member of the city's political and judicial committee. He received high ratings in his annual performance review. In the first few years after he became a practitioner, he maintained an honest and upright position in his job as the inspector of the city's political and judicial system. In 1999, he donated a significant amount of his income to support people suffering from the effects of the disastrous flooding in the cities of Zhucheng and Gaomi. During this period, he located his office in Qingzhou City. He drilled wells and repaired roads for the villagers and was highly regarded by the villagers. They welcomed him with firecrackers when he went back later to visit.

Mr. Jiang was a model official, and was well respected and admired. He lost his job after he was twice held in Changele Forced Labor Camp in Weifang City, in November 2000, and on November 2, 2005. In the freezing winter of 2000, eight guards stripped him naked, threw him in a water barrel with his hands and feet tied, and held his head under water. They also tortured him by spraying water up his nose for as long as thirty minutes. In 2005, Xu Lihua, the head of Changle Forced Labor Camp, instigated the criminal prisoners to mix drugs into his food, which caused dizziness and an irregular heartbeat.

On February 27, 2009, at 9:00 a.m., officers from the Weifang City National Security Bureau and the Weifang Public Security Bureau National Security Brigade arrested Mr. Jiang while he was at work. Four plainclothes officers, whose faces were covered, placed a black bag over Mr. Jiang's head and forced him into a car, and then took him to the Changle Detention Center. They would not answer any questions or allow visitation. Mr. Jiang's wife was arrested the same day.

In March 2009, agents in Weifang City circulated news that Mr. Jiang had been released, intending to keep people from focusing on the case and to cover up the persecution. For the first three months of his detention, officers from the Weifang Public Security Bureau constantly interrogated Mr. Jiang. They took turns interrogating him, and subjected him to sleep deprivation, which resulted in Mr. Jiang developing hypertension. In April 2009, Mr. Jiang went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He lost a significant amount of weight.

In May, the Weifang City Procuratorate began criminal prosecution proceedings against Mr. Jiang while he continued the hunger strike and was very weak. The guards at the detention center brutally force-fed Mr. Jiang through his nose. Many practitioners have lost their lives as a result of this force-feeding method.

The guards at the detention center put Mr. Jiang through the death bed torture. The guards ordered seven convicted criminals to tie Mr. Jiang's hands and legs on the death bed and carry out the brutal force-feeding. They continued the torture until Jiang vomited blood.

By June 2009, the persecution had made Mr. Jiang so weak that he could no longer eat and was in very poor health. His hair had turned gray due to the cruel treatment and the hunger strike. He had symptoms of liver disease, and developed high blood pressure. No matter how severe the persecution, Mr. Jiang would not compromise his strong belief in Falun Dafa.

Around January 15, 2010, he became extremely weak and was secretly taken to Jinan Prison in Shandong Province. He continued his hunger strike opposing the persecution, and prisoners force-fed him every day. He eventually became emaciated and was taken to a hospital.

Category: Accounts of Persecution