An Eyewitness to the Persecution of Falun Gong in a Chinese Prison

(Minghui.org) We are people who’ve learned the truth about Falun Gong. While incarcerated at a detention center and prison, I got the chance to know many Falun Gong practitioners. During the course of living with Falun Gong practitioners daily, I finally got to know what Falun Gong is and I saw and experienced what kind of people Falun Gong practitioners really are. I saw that Falun Gong really teaches people to be good. I understood why Falun Gong could easily spread throughout the world. I also learned why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wants to persecute Falun Gong. I completely understood that the CCP's propaganda about the so-called “Tiananmen self-immolation” was a lie and an attempt to stir up hatred toward Falun Gong among the people.

I. A young Falun Gong practitioner, You Huifu's encounters

You Huifu is from Houyou Village, Shouguang City. Because he practiced Falun Gong, he was forced to become homeless for six years before his high school graduation. Later, he wasillegally arrestedand sentenced. During the four years of being detained at Jinan Prison, he suffered both mental and physical torture. I want to expose to the world what I saw and heard. But this is only the tip of an iceberg of what he suffered over the past ten years.

In mid May of 2002, at that time, You Huifu was a sophomore in high school, and had just reached the age of 17. That day on his way to school, he happened to pass a fellow practitioner's home. He thought he should visit that practitioner and chat. Right after he stepped into the door, two plainclothes police officers hiding there grabbed him and attempted to search him. You Huifu turned around and tried to run outside. As a result, he was knocked down on the ground by those two police officers. They took him away in a police car and he was then detained at Shengcheng Police Station and went through interrogation. The police officers did not get anything from the interrogation. You Huifu found an opportunity and ran away. He wanted to go back to school, but on the way, he met his classmates and they told him that police had already gone to their school to arrest him. The police ransacked his desk and dorm. They also threatened the teachers and school leaders. He wanted to go home, but the villagers told him that police also had gone to his home to harass and arrest his father. Huifu was unsure of how to respond to the situation. He couldn’t go home, and neither did he dare to go back to school. Therefore he became homeless. Six years of being homeless put young You Huifu under a lot of pressure and caused him enormous harm. During that time, the police often went to his home to harass his family. His family also endured great suffering, worrying about their young son.

On May 22, 2008, You Huifu was arrested by the National Security Team and the police of Shouguang City. Li Qingping, captain of the National Security Team, Guo Hongtang, the deputy head of the National Security Team, Chen Hu, the director of the Industry Police Station, interrogated You Huifu and tortured him. They would not allow him to go to sleep. They kicked and punched him, stepped on his thighs, kicked his back with a lot of strength. They tortured him by shocking him with electricity, burned him with cigarettes, and forced him to sit on the floor with his arms handcuffed behind his back. They used stools to press down on both of his feet and they would raise up the handcuffs tightly behind his back. At night, they would tie his hands and feet to the legs of the bed. Then they would cover his head with bags and force him to stand for hours. Seven days and seven nights after they used various methods to torture him, they locked You Huifu in the detention center. When the National Security Team interrogated him, he was forced to sit on an iron chair. He had to sit like that for one or two days, or even longer. During almost a year's detention there, this kind of interrogation was forced on him more than ten times. Each time, he was forced to wear handcuffs and shackles. They would not allow him to go to sleep for several days. They would slap his face as soon as he fell into sleep. They would hit him with wooden sticks, or kick or punch him. His back became swollen and he was in tremendous pain. The handcuffs had torn the skin off of his wrists. It was such a long time that he could not remember how many types of torture methods he had suffered. Finally, You Huifu was tortured so badly that he became extremely weak and could not stand up straight. A Shouguang City Court then sentenced You Huifu to 12 years. In 2009, he was detained at Shandong Prison.

You Huifu's mother was detained at the Village Committee office for over a dozen days because she went to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa on April 25, 1999. The Village Committee extorted 10,000 yuan from her and then released her. After that, the Village Committee, the township government, and the police constantly harassed the family and they lost their freedom.

After April 25, 1999, You Huifu's uncle Zhang Zhaoyu and his wife Yang Ruiying suffered long-term harassment, monitoring, detention, beatings, and heavy fines from the Shouguang City Police Station, the Shouguang Town government (the name has since been changed to Shengcheng Residential Street Office).

In 2000, in order to avoid being arrested by the 610 Office or to not be sent to the brainwashing sessions, both of them were forced to become homeless. Their 17-year-old daughter was left at home with nobody taking care of her. The daughter suffered significant physical and psychological trauma. On May 23, 2008, Zhang Zhaoyu was arrested again. He was detained at the Shengcheng Police Station where he suffered brutal torture and interrogation for seven days and seven nights. Later, he escaped. However in mid August of the same year, both practitioners were arrested again. They suffered brutal persecution from the National Security Team and were sentenced by a Shouguang City Court to 12 and 8 years in prison respectively. From 2009 to the present, they have been detained and suffering persecution at the Shandong Provincial Prison and Jinan Female Prison.

You Huifu's uncle, Zhang Zhaozong, and his wife, You Airong, were also detained twice by the township government after April 25, 1999 and they suffered long-term persecution. You Airong was arrested, sent to a brainwashing session and suffered persecution for several months. In 2009, she was sentenced to a forced labor camp. Her husband was forced to leave home. In 2004, he was arrested again and then was sentenced to a one-year forced labor camp term. In 2007, he was sentenced to another year of forced labor.

II. Falun Gong practitioner Yang Wenbiao

When Yang Wenbiao, a Falun Gong practitioner from Luocheng Residential Street Office, limped into the detention center, we were surprised. From his painful expression, every step seemed to be very difficult. His face was swollen. His neck and the back of his hands were full of wounds. When he tried to take off his shoes, he could not take the socks off since blood was sticking to his socks. When he tore off the socks, two big toe-nails came off. It was really appalling.

Out of conscience, I would like to expose what I learned. By the end of November 2008, Guo Hongtang, the captain of the National Security Team of Shouguang City, brought four police officers from the Luocheng Police Station and broke into Yang Wenbiao's home. They ransacked his home and arrested him. Later they arrested Yang's wife and took her to the police station. Their daughter cried because she was very afraid, and the elderly grandmother at home was also frightened.

Yang Wenbiao was detained at the Luocheng Police Station for three days and three nights. Wang Wanchun, a police officer from the National Security Team and three other people took turns torturing and interrogating him. Mr. Yang was forced to sit on the cement floor, with his arms handcuffed behind his back. The police officers used wooden sticks with a diameter of about three to four centimeters (covered with thorns) to hit his neck, shoulders, hands and feet. His head was struck so much that big welts formed. His body was badly wounded and bloody. His whole body became swollen and painful, and then turned black. The police viciously kicked his back, ribs, and legs. They would not allow him to close his eyes. This torture lasted all day. The next day, they changed to an even more brutal method to torture Mr. Yang. The police officers fixed his feet onto the leg of a chair, and his hands were cuffed behind his back. One police officer sat on the chair to prevent him from moving, then they used a one-meter long wooden pole, with one end tied to his shoulder, in the middle, and a rope that went through the handcuff. They pushed his back with their feet, and with a lot of force they pulled the wooden pole on the other end, until Yang Wenbiao fainted because of the pain. After he came to, they stepped on the wooden pole, rolling it over Yang's lower legs back and forth, until Yang fainted again. On the third day, they used electric batons to shock him. They also poured water on his head and then shocked him. They slapped his face, used a bag to cover his head and then violently kicked and punched him. Three days later, Yang Wenbiao was injured so badly no one could recognize him, and he was extremely weak. Finally, a Shouguang City Court sentenced him 9 years and then he was detained in the Shandong Provincial Prison for further persecution.

III. Liu Bofu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Laizhou, suffered persecution in the No. 11 Prison District

I worked as a supervisor in the No. 11 Prison District of the Shandong Provincial Prison. At first I did not understand Falun Gong. Being a supervisor I could earn more credit, and I did not think too much and accepted the job. During that time, I witnessed those inhuman torture methods used in the No. 11 Prison District to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners. The ravages of physical and mental torture were intensely shocking. If other people had told me these things, I might not have believed them. However these brutal acts were exposed in front of my eyes. I even witnessed the well-known case of Lu Zhen (a college student), a Falun Gong practitioner from Yimeng, being beaten to death. His case drew attention to the authorities. I found it difficult to be in peace whenever I think about this case. Who would have thought that TVs, radios and newspapers would go to such lengths to defame Falun Gong with their propaganda, claiming that their “education method” towards Falun Gong practitioners is very kindly, when it is in fact so bloody? I am telling what I saw and hope that everyone will re-examine Falun Gong and the hypocrisy of the wicked CCP.

Falun Gong practitioner Lu Zhen

One evening in March, 2009, Liu Bofu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Laizhou, was sent to the No. 11 Prison District. Zhu Changjiu, the squad leader and five to six criminal offenders took him to the guards' on-duty room and tried to force him to write the so-called “five guarantee letter” (part of the “transformation” process). Liu Bofu refused. Several people immediately swarmed him and stripped off his clothes and began kicking and punching him. Then they knocked him down on the floor. Several people pressed him down and would not allow him to move. They used a one-meter long wooden pole to violently beat the soles of his feet. They beat his feet until they were covered with blood and turned purple and black. They also used the wooden pole to roll back and forth on his lower legs until his skin came off. Seeing Liu Bofu's terrible suffering, I could not stand it. But I dared not say anything. Even in that condition, they continued to slap his face, kick him, burn him with cigarettes, and poke his fingers with needles. After they became tired after torturing him for a while, some rested and then continued. Several people would take turns torturing him and then they would change methods. Some perpetrators would stand on the wooden pole grinding his lower legs. Finally his legs were swollen and black and blue, and he could not walk at all. At last he had to be carried onto a bed. He could not roll over and could not get off the bed. It took half a year for him to completely recover. There were scars left on his legs forever, which bear witness to the crimes committed at Shandong Provincial Prison. The instigator behind it by that time was the instructor, Li Wei.

This is only the tip of an iceberg of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners over the past ten years. Many criminal inmates wanted to earn more points for better conditions or towards early release; some of them directly followed orders from the police. Some were in the process of accomplishing their “transformation” quotas, and carried on with even more cruelty. But in fact, the guards are the ultimate persons who should take responsibility, because those evil deeds were done under their supervision. In the event of severe injury or death, the guards would cover up the truth and they would be even more brazen.

These Falun Gong practitioners are all very kind. Only because they believe in Truth- Compassion-Forbearance, did they suffer all these tortures, no matter whether it was physical, mental, or economic. Their families also suffered the ravages of what ordinary people would find unbearable. We are exposing what we witnessed with our own eyes. We truly hope that more people will pay attention to the Falun Gong practitioners' horrible plight; they need justice. Let such tragedies not occur in this land any more.

Contact information of perpetrators (partial list):

Main person in charge in Shandong Provincial Prison,Warden Qi Xiaoguang: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Home), [phone] (Cell)
Political Commissar, Zhang Chuanlin: [phone], [phone], [phone]
Deputy warden, Zhan Huacheng: [phone], [phone], [phone]

Please refer to the original Chinese text for more names and telephone numbers.