(Minghui.org) Mr. Chen Deguang was born in 1946. He was an employee of the Northwest Branch of the No. 4 Metallurgical Construction Company of China. On July 6, 2012, while Mr. Chen and his wife, Ms. Sheng Chunmei, were clarifying the truth in the Huazhuang area of the Honggu District, they were arrested and taken to the Huazhuang Police Station. Lei Fulin, the chief of the station, tried to get Ms. Sheng admitted to the detention center with false accusations but failed, so she was released. However, he got Mr. Chen admitted to the Haishiwan Detention Center, where he is still being detained.
On June 5, 2012, when the lawyer his wife hired for Mr. Chen went to Lanzhou City Intermediate Court to visit Judge Bing Jianfeng in the First Courtroom, he was informed that the hearing date originally set for Mr. Chen's case was delayed from June 12, 2012 to June 14. It was then reported that the case was delayed indefinitely.
Mr. Chen used to have many illnesses, including lumbar muscle strain, cervical bone hyperplasia, gastroptosis, and other health problems. He also smoked and drank a lot. After he began to practice Falun Gong on August 16, 1997, all of his illnesses disappeared and he no longer drank or smoked. However, after the persecution of Falun Gong began in July, 1999, Mr. Chen and his family have been persecuted repeatedly.
Mr. Chen's Ribs Broken During His First Appeal
Shortly after July 20,1999, Mr. Chen went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was arrested and escorted back to Lanzhou and detained in the Honggu District Detention Center for 13 days. Detention center director Lu (given name unknown) ordered inmates to torture practitioners. They beat Mr. Chen and broke his ribs. They then refused to take him to the hospital.
After Mr. Chen's release, he was constantly monitored, harassed, and detained. He once was detained for 17 days for no reason.
In June 2000, Mr. Chen's wife, Ms. Sheng, went to Beijing to appeal and was also arrested and detained for 15 days. During her detention, the local police came to their home several times to harass their family.
Mr. Chen Sentenced to One and a Half Years of Forced Labor
On October 6, 2000, Mr. Chen, Ms. Sheng, and their daughter went to Beijing to appeal again. They were arrested and detained for 15 days.
In November 2000, Mr. Chen went to Beijing to appeal for the third time. He was arrested and detained in the Haishiwan Detention Center.
On February 9, 2001, police officer Zhang Wenge deceived Mr. Chen and sent him to the Honggu Detention Center. He was later sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor in the Ping'antai Forced Labor Camp.
At around 8:00 p.m. on March 2, 2001, Ms. Sheng and her daughter, Ms. Chen Shenghua, went out to distribute truth-clarification materials and did not come back. Their whereabouts were unknown.
That same night at 10:12 p.m., officer Zhang Wenge tried to break into Mr. Chen's home. Mr. Chen's 13-year-old son, Chen Jianru, heard noises at the door and called other practitioners for help. Zhang had to leave. Mr. Chen's home phone was later monitored. Three days later, Chen Jianru was forced to leave home to avoid further harassment.
While Mr. Chen was in the labor camp, he was brutally tortured by inmates and forced to do hard labor. In June 2001, the guards handcuffed him behind his back and hung him up with his toes barely touching the ground. They then tightly covered him with two comforters from head to toe. He immediately started to shiver and sweat, soaking all his clothes. After that, he became really weak and was unable to stand up straight. His chest hurt, and he had difficulty breathing. He couldn't move his arms for a long time.
In February 2002, because Mr. Chen refused to work when he was ordered to build new cells to detain practitioners, he was dragged to the top of the hill in the early morning to suffer from the cold. Three hours later, he was brutally beaten. His ribs were broken again and pushed out through the skin of his chest. He was unable to move his back. Camp officials refused to take him to the hospital despite his repeated requests.
Torture Re-Enactment: Brutal beating
Mr. Chen's son, Chen Jianru, 14 years old at the time, came back home and lived alone. He was unable to eat well and passed out from hunger in school.
In August 2002, Mr. Chen's family finally reunited. However, three days later, when they visited another practitioner, Ms. Qu Shufan, Haishiwan Police Station officers arrested Mr. Chen Deguang, Ms. Sheng Chunmei, and Ms. Chen Shenghua again and took them to a brainwashing center. Mr. Chen was not released until March of 2003.
Mr. Chen and His Wife Ms. Sheng Again Arrested
On July 6, 2011, Mr. Chen and Ms. Sheng were arrested by Huazhuang Police Station officers for clarifying the truth to people. Mr. Chen was beaten on the spot and afterwards taken to the police station.
The next day, Lei Fulin, director of the police station, tried to send Ms. Sheng to the Lanzhou City Jiuzhou Detention Center, but the detention center refused to accept her due to her health. Lei took her to three hospitals to be examined, and each time after the exam, they tried to get her admitted to a detention center, but each time she was turned down, so they reluctantly sent her home.
When they arrived at Ms. Sheng's home around 12:00 a.m., they took her key to open the door and over a dozen officers began to ransacking her home without showing any identification. They claimed that they had a search warrant, but never showed it. They confiscated all their valuables, including a computer, a printer, DVD burner, USB drives, MP3 players and Falun Gong books, and materials. Everything was loaded into several cars and trucks. They also extorted 5,000 yuan as bail for Ms. Sheng to wait for her trial. They informed Ms. Sheng that Mr. Chen was in the Haishiwan Detention Center.
On July 18, 2011, Mr. Chen and Ms. Sheng's cases were filed. At the beginning of November 2011, Honggu District Police Department officers sent their cases to the Lanzhou City Procuratorate. After his family got the notice, they hired a defense lawyer for him. On November 24, 2011, Mr. Chen's lawyer met with him. Mr. Chen gave his lawyer an indictment letter charging police officer Zhang Guowei from the Huazhuang Police Station.
The letter described Zhang's crimes in detail. One time Zhang Guowei tortured Mr. Chen for more than an hour. He punched his face and neck and brutally kicked his chest and legs. Afterwards, Mr. Chen was unable to turn over in bed. His legs were swollen and had bruises all over them. The swelling did not go down for three months.
On November 25, 2011, Mr. Chen's daughter, Ms. Chen Shenghua, tried to submit the indictment to the persecutor, Shi Xinglin, but the persecutor refused to accept it. In December 2011, when Ms. Chen brought winter shoes for Mr. Chen at the Haijiawan Detention Center, she was told that Mr. Chen had been transferred to the Lanzhou City Second Detention Center.
Ms. Chen then went to the Honggu Police Department Law Enforcement Section to hand in the indictment, but they told her that they would have to investigate and asked her to go to the procuratorate to file the lawsuit. However, when she went to the Honggu District Procuratorate, they told her that they needed some physical evidence. When Ms. Chen went back to the Honggu Police Department Law Enforcement Section to follow up on their investigation, they told her that there was no evidence indicating that Zhang had beaten Mr. Chen and they would do a further investigation. In March 2012, the case went back to the procuratorate after the investigation. In April 2012, the lawyer told Ms. Chen that the case had been returned.
On April 4, 2012, when Mr. Chen's son, Mr. Chen Jianru and several other practitioners clarified the truth to people in the Tianzhu area in Lanzhou, Tiantangsi Police Station officers arrested them. The next day, he was transferred to the Tianzhu Detention Center for 15 days of detention. However, 15 days later, on April 19, police from the Tianzhu Domestic Security Division and the local police took Mr. Chen Jianru from the detention center to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center. His sister, Ms. Chen Shenghua, went to the brainwashing center several times to see her brother, but was never allowed to.
On May 28, 2012, Judge Bing Jianfeng from the Lanzhou Intermediate First Court contacted Ms. Chen Shenghua to have her mother, Ms. Sheng Chunmei, come to the court for the indictment. Mr. Chen and Ms. Sheng are now awaiting trial. Their son, Mr. Chen Jianru, is being detained in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center.
