(Minghui.org) Jinshi Prison in Hunan Province is also known as Cendan Farm. It is located in Baiyangdi, Jinshi City, and is one of the major prisons in Hunan Province. More than 30 Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned there. Below are accounts of the persecution that Mr. Liao Zhijun and Mr. Lei Zhiyong have endured at the prison.
Father and Son Imprisoned in Jinshi Prison
Mr. Liao Zhijun worked in the train inspection facility at the Chenzhou Train Station. His father, Mr. Liao Songlin, is 72 years old. Mr. Liao Zhijun and his father, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner, were illegally arrested by officers from the Chenzhou Domestic Security Division in May 2008. Mr. Liao Songlin was sentenced to four years, while Mr. Liao Zhijun was sentenced to three and a half years. Both of them are imprisoned in Jinshi Prison.
Practitioners in the prison are closely monitored by inmates 24 hours a day. They are not allowed to practice Falun Gong, read, or talk about Falun Gong, nor touch pen or paper. They even have to get approval from their inmate monitors before they use the restroom. Inmate Zhang Fanghua is nicknamed “mean guy” by others. Encouraged by the prison Education Section chief Luo Hua, Zhang repeatedly curses Falun Gong practitioners, and has been one of the main culprits involved in beating the elder Mr. Liao Songlin.
On March 6, 2009, Mr. Liao Zhijun resisted a body search. Deputy head of the First Ward, Xiao Jian, ordered inmates to strip off his clothes and beat him. His inner thighs became pulpy as a result of the beating. Xiao ordered inmates to handcuff Mr. Liao with his hands behind his back to a bed for more than 10 hours until he agreed to do hard labor.
Mr. Liao was taken to a solitary brainwashing section in the Fifth Ward on May 28, 2011. Initially, he was just subjected to prison guards trying to brainwash him with hate propaganda against Falun Gong. After two days, he was not allowed to wash or sleep. A new round of “talks” started at 11:00 p.m. and lasted until 2:00 a.m. The room is full of posters that slander Master Li, the founder of Falun Gong. As a result of such intense abuse, Mr. Liao has become physically and mentally exhausted.
High School Teacher Subjected to Torture
Mr. Lei Zhiyong, 44, was a teacher in the Lanshan County First High School in Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. He was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2002, and was transferred from the Changsha Prison to the Eighth Prison Ward of Jinshi Prison in March 2003.
In the hot summer of June 2004, the guards shaved Mr. Lei's head, forced him to wear the prison uniform, and had the prison doctor Wu Yu inject him with unknown drugs. They then ordered inmates to put a long military winter coat on Mr. Lei, hang a 40-pound sandbag around his neck, then drag and push him to force him to run barefoot on the hot concrete ground. After that, they dragged him to an office and forced him into an upside-down position. Two groups of inmates then each grabbed one of his feet and pulled him in opposite directions. He lost consciousness from the torture.
During the ice storm of January 2008, 610 Office agents Zhou Ningjun, and officers Song Jianjun and Wang Yadong used prison term reductions to incite inmates to torture Mr. Lei again. The inmates watched him 24 hours a day, and hung him outside the window. They hung him in a warehouse, stripped off his trousers, then took turns beating him with bamboo brooms. They put salt and oil on his wounds, and rubbed his wounds with force.
Mr. Lei survived the torture and was finally released at the end of 2008.
