(Minghui.org) Over the past 15 years, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Cheng Deyong, 61, from Tongshan County, Hubei Province, has been illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor and three years in prison, and detained four times. He has also had 12,000 yuan extorted from him.

The Xiapu Police Station often sends officers to harass his family, which seriously interferes with their normal family life.

Before he practiced Falun Gong, Mr. Cheng was plagued with illnesses and nearly lost his ability to work. He quickly regained his health after he started the practice in 1997.

After the Chinese Communist regime started persecuting Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Mr. Cheng clarified the truth to his relatives and friends, and many people learned the facts through him.

Repeated Suffocation in Tongshan County Detention Center

Mr. Cheng was arrested and taken to the Tongshan County Detention Center in 2007 for posting truth-clarification messages on utility poles. In the detention center he was subjected to repeated beatings and all kinds of torture.

When he was asleep, the police instigated inmates to cover his head with a quilt to suffocate him. After this was done to him repeatedly, he looked like pale and walked with great difficulty.

He was sentenced to two years of forced labor by the Tongshan County 610 Office. The detention center was worried that he might die, so they extorted 8,000 yuan from his family and released him on bail. They also made him pay 1,700 yuan for food before allowing him to go home.

Sentenced to Three Years in Prison on False Charges

On December 1, 2008, Mr. Cheng was arrested for distributing Falun Gong materials. Tongshan County Court sentenced him to three years in prison for “using a cult organization to break the law.” Mr. Cheng was taken to Fanjiatai Prison in Shayang City, Hubei Province.

The No. 4 Prison Ward in Fanjiatai Prison was set up specifically to incarcerate Falun Gong practitioners. Ward head Zu Jian often openly slandered Falun Gong and instigated inmates to torture practitioners in all kinds of ways, such as solitary confinement, violent beatings, sitting on a small stool for long periods of time, intensive hard labor, sleep deprivation, injection of damaging drugs, etc.

Mr. Cheng was not allowed to do any in-prison shopping, to see his family members or to write to them. He was not allowed to talk and was forced to sit on a small stool for long periods of time.

Since Mr. Cheng refused to do forced labor, he was forced to sit on a small stool for over ten hours a day for five months. The flesh on his buttocks festered.

When he was released in 2011, he could not even speak or walk normally.

Tortured on the “Tiger Bench”

In July 2013, Mr. Cheng was once again arrested and detained at the county detention center for 15 days for distributing Shen Yun DVDs. He also had 750 yuan extorted from him.

Torture re-enactment: Tiger Bench

On December 1, 2013, Mr. Cheng was arrested by Dafan Police Station for posting truth-clarification materials. He was interrogated and tortured on a Tiger Bench throughout the night. He was later taken to the county detention center by the 610 Office and detained there for 15 days. He had another 750 yuan extorted from him.

Some of the Parties Involved in the Persecution of Mr. Cheng:

Cheng Hongfu (程宏富), head of the Tongshan County 610 Office: +86-715-2395112 (Office) Zhou Shangmou (周尚谋), head of the Tongshan County Police Department: +86-715-2395666 (Office) Meng Sheng (孟晟), head of the Tongshan County Domestic Security Division: +86-715-2396617 (Office), +86-715-2390568 (Home) Guo Jianjun (郭建军), deputy head of the Tongshan County Detention Center: +86-715-2397788 (Home), +86-715-2395129 (Office) (More perpetrators' contact information available in the original Chinese article.)