Engineer Arrested Again After Nine Years of Imprisonment and Torture

(Minghui.org) Mr. Li Shunjiang, an engineer from Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on March 21, 2017. This was the third time that he has been arrested for practicing Falun Gong.

Mr. Li was first arrested on February 20, 2001 for talking to people about the persecution of Falun Gong. He was sentenced to nine years in prison and subjected to vicious torture. His limbs were severely injured. He was released in 2010.

Mr. Li was arrested a second time for taking a picture of a poster about criminal complaints against the former leader of Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin on September 11, 2015. His family went to the police station to seek his release, and he was released later that day.

His third arrest was together with eight other Falun Gong practitioners. He remains in custody at the time of this report. It is not yet clear what triggered this latest arrest.

Below is Mr. Li's own account of the torture he suffered during his first arrest and nine years of imprisonment.

First Arrest

After the Chinese Communist Party launched the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong, the situation became very harsh for us. Many of us lost our jobs, as well as our freedom to do the practice. I was forced to leave home to avoid being arrested. Meanwhile, in an effort to let the public understand the persecution and refute the regime's slanderous propaganda attacking the practice, I tried my best to talk to people.

Police broke into my home on the evening of February 20, 2001. They confiscated more than 2,000 yuan in cash. They beat and kicked me, and tied me up. They covered my eyes, shackled me, and took me to the police station.

Cuffing and Hanging Torture

At the police station, they tied me to a heating pipe so that I couldn't stand up or sit down.

On the next evening, I was brought to the interrogation room and locked to a chair with my hands tied to the back. The police handcuffed me very tightly so that blood did not circulate and my hands swelled up very badly.

I was transferred to a secret detention place in the suburbs on the third day. They covered my eyes and put a heavy helmet on my head. Then they cuffed my hands to two bed frames, one on the top, the other on the bottom. I could neither sit nor stand.

They continued to interrogate me on the fourth day. The police beat me all over my body and struck the helmet that they forced me to wear. I felt very dizzy and heard buzzing noises in my ears. In the evening, they hung me from the ceiling beam and hit my feet with wooden blocks more than 200 times. My hands and feet swelled up, were misshapen, and turned black and blue, especially my toes.

I tried to persuade them not to do evil, that it was not good for them to participate in the persecution. They said, “We don't care if you are all good people or not. The regime orders us to arrest you and we will do it. For other people who commit bad crimes, if the regime doesn't instruct us to arrest them, we won't.”

No matter how they tortured and interrogated me, I didn't tell them anything they wanted. Zhang Chunqiu, the head of the Domestic Security Division, verbally abused me and the practice. He threatened me. “It would be so easy for me to kill you. We could just burn your body and then tell the public that you committed suicide by self-immolation.’”

They let me down from the beam, put shackles back on me and locked me to the bed. My face was badly swollen and my toes were in excruciating pain. I was later transferred to Tienan Police Station and locked to the chair with my hands cuffed to the back for one day. They poured ice cold water on me.

During the five days of detention, interrogation, and torture, I remained on a hunger strike to protest the persecution.

Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison after Nearly Two Years of Detention

After five days of torture, I was transferred to the No.1 Detention Center in Qiqihar. I was badly swollen and had bruises all over body. They kept the cuffs on me, which were tightly embedded around my wrist. The physician at the detention center first refused to accept me, but the head of the police gave them special instructions and pressured them to accept me in the end.

At the detention center, my hands and feet were swollen and numb for more than six months. I couldn't lift my arms. My feet were numb and it has been difficult to move for nearly five years.

The guards continued to torture and beat me frequently at the detention center. After 22 months of detention there, I was taken to the Tailai Prison on December 16, 2002 and given a nine-year term.

Ceaseless Torture in the Prison

Because I refused to wear a prison jumpsuit, the guard ordered inmates to beat me and to strike my face and head with a metal whip. I had blood all over my face.

As a result of the torture and appalling food during detention, I felt dizzy and was diagnosed with severe anemia in January 2003.

One day as I sat on the bed with my legs crossed, an inmate reported to the guard that I was doing Falun Gong exercises. The guard brought me to a room. I attempted to explain to him what Falun Gong is. He didn't listen to me and beat me along with several other inmates. After that, my physical condition worsened. If I did not lean against a wall while walking, I would fall down.

I was transferred to another division in the prison. One day while I was doing the Falun Gong exercises, the prison guard ordered the inmates to bring me to his office, and he beat me with a broom. I was placed in solitary confinement in the evening. The inmates tied my feet to a long metal bar and cuffed my hands behind my back for seven days.

When I held a hunger strike in protest, the prison guards force fed me with dog food. They often inserted the feeding tube into my nose.

When I was detained in solitary confinement, the prison provided two meals of thin porridge each day and no water. I could only drink or brush my teeth with toilet water.

“If You Don't Transform, We Will Cremate you!”

Guards at Tailai Prison worked very hard to make Falun Gong practitioners give up our beliefs, as it's all connected to their salary, bonus and even promotions. All Falun Gong practitioners were forced to attend brainwashing sessions.

A guard threatened me that “if you don't transform, we will cremate you!” He ordered several inmates to monitor me, and detained me in solitary confinement for more than 20 days. He didn't allow me to talk to others or receive phone calls, and denied family visitation. All personal letters were intercepted.

As I didn't cooperate with them, they didn't allow me to sleep. While it was still very cold outside, the inmates opened the door and window in my room and took off my clothes to freeze me. Sometimes they poured cold water on me. Sometimes they didn't allow me to use the restroom, and forced me to drink salty water, causing me to become incontinent.

Perpetrators' contact information:
Political and Legal Affairs Committee in Jianhua District: [phone]Ma Zhe (马哲), head of Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone] (Office)Zhao Guolian (赵国莲), head of 610 Office: [phone], [phone]Yang Zhonghua (杨中华), head of Police Station in Jianhua District: [phone]