(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhang Huirong returned home on August 10, 2015, after enduring seven years at a Shandong Province prison.

Three days before his release, he was removed from the prison hospital, where he had been treated for injuries resulting from beatings by inmates. He was then tied to a chair by arms and feet (see illustration below) so that he could not move, until the night before his release. He hadn't eaten for two days.

Torture illustration: Restraining

Mr. Zhang lived in Pingdu City, Shandong Province when he was arrested in August 2008 for practicing Falun Gong. After nine months of detention, he was sent to Shandong Prison in May 2009.

Mr. Zhang recalled his first day at the prison. “A group of eight or nine inmates took me to an office. They asked me to write a statement denouncing Falun Gong. When I refused, they pushed me to the ground and beat me.” The inmates used a wooden stick roll over his legs, and a strip of hardboard to hit his buttocks. A toothbrush handle was used to scratch his ribs until it left strips of bloody marks.

At intervals during the torture, they stopped and asked Mr. Zhang to write the statement. Every refusal brought another round of beatings and assault. When Mr. Zhang eventually gave in, his face was unrecognizable and his feet had swelled so much that they would not fit into his shoes. He lay on the ground in pain, unable to move.

Inside the prison, guards often assigned groups of inmates to “transform” each Falun Gong practitioner by forcing him to denounce Falun Gong. This was called the Strict Monitoring Team. The inmates on these teams received incentives to carry out their tasks, including reduced sentences, points towards various rewards like extra food, and not having to do hard labor.

When Mr. Zhang told guards that he would not give up his belief, he was assigned to one of these teams. He said, “I was locked in a room with all the windows and the door covered with boards. The inmates were given free rein to do anything they wanted. They came up with all sorts of ways of tormenting me.”

Mr. Zhang recalled that another Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. Lu Zheng, died hanging upside down after being tortured by the inmates. An eighty-year-old man was beaten with a wooden rod until it broke in half.

Torture illustration: Hanging upside down

One day in 2012 several inmates beat Mr. Zhang for three hours. His clothes were ripped to pieces. He was covered with bruises and could not sit up. He was taken to the prison hospital for a back injury, and remained at the hospital until a few days before his release.