(Minghui.org) Mr. Sun Yuqiang, a Falun Gong practitioner in his 70s, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment and is now detained in Jindong Prison. While detained in Canzhou Detention Center and Jindong Prison, he went on hunger strike to protest against the illegal detainment. Prison officials violently force-fed him and placed him in a hospital with horrifying conditions.

After barbaric torture, Mr. Sun became emaciated and his health deteriorated. His throat became inflamed from extended periods of having a gastric canal inserted through his nostrils. His belly swelled. Informants said that this elderly man has suffered spinocerebellar atrophy. However, prison officials continued torturing him and repeatedly denied requests from his family for medical parole.

Torture reenactment: Force-feeding

Mr. Sun's daughter, Ms. Sun Xiuling, was arrested on her way to see her father and taken to the Tianjin Railroad Police Station. She protested her illegal detainment with a hunger strike and suffered violent force-feeding as a result. She is now in critical condition.

Deceiving Family

Guards in Jindong Prison saw that Mr. Sun was in critical condition after his extended hunger strike. They asked his family to persuade him to eat and promised to release him on medical parole as soon as he started eating. Mr. Sun's family believed their words and did so.

Mr. Sun listened to his family's persuasion and gave up his hunger strike. However, when his family went to pick him up, the guards said they had made no promise to release Mr. Sun.

The family sought help from officials from the local Judiciary Bureau, Political and Legal Committee, and 610 Office, who treated the family in a brusque and abrupt way and refused medical parole for Mr. Sun.

Holding an Elderly Man in Appalling Conditions, Repeatedly Denying Medical Parole

Last month, guards from Jindong Prison informed Mr. Sun's family that he was infected with a serious case of pulmonary tuberculosis and sent to a hospital. The family went to the hospital immediately, saw that Mr. Sun Yuqiang was extremely underweight, and had been hospitalized in ghastly conditions.

His daily-use items were dirty and insufficient. Mud fell off his arm when touched. It was apparent that he had not bathed for a long time. His vest was dirty, too, and had not been laundered. Though the place was called a hospital, the conditions were far from sanitary. Mr. Sun's sickroom was stuffy and not equipped with an air conditioner. It was difficult to breathe, even for people who were well.

Mr. Sun refused medicine and injections and insisted on leaving. His jailers asked his family to persuade him to cooperate with medical treatment, but they angrily demanded that he be allowed to go home.

One relative said, “We want to take him out and give him good medical treatment. Why are you still detaining him? Do you want us to wait and end up taking back a dead person? He is in critical condition. Why don't you release him? ”

Creating “Evidence” for Shirking Responsibilities Later

The jail guards not only repeatedly denied Mr. Sun's medical parole, but also planned how they would avoid responsibility for his failing health.

When relatives visited Mr. Sun in the hospital, they noticed a camera that was taking pictures on the stand next to the bed. It appeared that his jailers might use the images as evidence that they had given him medical care and allowed family visits.

Mr. Sun told his family that he was fingerprinted every day at the prison, verifying that he had received medical treatment when no such thing happened.

Mr. Sun Yuqiang, a farmer from Wanghaisi Village, Cang County, Hebei Province , was arrested because he told people the facts about Falun Gong on December 24, 2012. He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in May 2013. He has been detained in Cangzou Detention Center and is now imprisoned in Jindong Prison.