The Guta District Court in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, held a secret hearing on February 26, 2007, for Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Lifeng, and sentenced him to four years of imprisonment on March 6, 2007.

Mr. Zhang's family members did not know anything about the whole process, from the hearing to the sentencing, until they went to the court to ask about his status. They then decided to appeal.

On May 14, the Jinzhou City Intermediate Court ignored the agreement with Mr. Zhang's family members that he would plea "not guilty." The court did not send a notice to the family, and assigned an attorney arbitrarily. The court rejected the appeal and stuck to the original terms.

During his persecution, Mr. Zhang's false eye fell out when the police beat him and could not be found. He is terribly nearsighted in his other eye, and rickets symptoms have now recurred. He has been held at the Second Detention Center for six months.

By a Falun Gong practitioner in China

I was illegally arrested and sent to Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp, where I was persecuted. The following is what I saw and heard in that dark den.

In late May 2005, in the "Intensive Training Team" of Beijing Women's Forced Labor Re-education Camp, there was an elderly Falun Gong practitioner who was quite tall and had white hair. When it was time for her to shower, three people would hold her body, with a towel forced into her mouth in order to keep her from talking. However, we have not seen her since June.

When we were having so-called "legal lessons," practitioners asked, "What crime did we Falun Gong practitioners commit for you to sentence us?" The guard who was leading the session said, "You committed a crime because you believe morality is superior to the law." There was no further explanation. Then the guards started to talk about other things.

In late June 2005, while we were doing forced labor, a group of people came and took photos of each team while the prisoners were working. The prison guards were frightened, and they started to take down all the surveillance cameras installed in the bathrooms. The labor camp guards were very deceitful. For example, as soon as people came to inspect, they would order us to finish our work early and hide all our work tools so that the visitors wouldn't find out about the forced labor.

On December 29, 2005, from 6:00 to 6:15 a.m., guards from the "Intensive Training Team" forced towels into several practitioners' mouths and took them away in vehicles from the Judiciary Bureau. No one knew what was happening. Before lunch, the team leader told each team that no one was allowed to accept an interview, and if anyone decided to say anything negative, that person would be regarded as betraying her country. At noon, the guards forced us to go to sleep as soon as we finished our lunch. Every team leader was watching us closely. Later we found out that people from the United Nations had come to interview Falun Gong practitioners.

Practitioners were also force-fed. In 2005, we could often hear people crying out in the "Intensive Training Team" and the "Tackle Fort Team."  However, as soon as visitors arrived, the guards would create a false scene.

In 2005, before the Chinese Lunar New Year, a group of practitioners was supposed to be released and reunited with their family members. However, they were not released until after the 15^th of the first month of the lunar new year. Drug addict inmates and prostitutes, however, were released before the new year.

From September to October 2006, Ms. Zhang Jinlian, 50, a Falun Gong practitioner from Miyun held in the "Intensive Training Team," had her arm wrapped with gauze, and she was often sent outside for treatment. It seemed that she was badly wounded.

On October 13, 2006, at half past six in the morning, one steadfast practitioner in the "Intensive Training Team" called out "Falun Dafa is good" twice, and asked those who had been "transformed," "Are you still Falun Gong practitioners? It is really heartbreaking..."

Prison guards hit her in the face many times, and then pulled her by her hair to the ground, not allowing her to make a sound.

One day in December 2006, we saw some prison guards holding electric batons and wearing helmets. Later we found out that they were going to torture four female practitioners who had written, "Falun Dafa is good."

On December 22, 2006, from 6:25 to 6:35 a.m., the labor camp sent a group of steadfast practitioners away by car. Two returned after noon. No one knew where the others were taken.

Those practitioners who refused to be "transformed" were not allowed to have a shower for one or more months. They were also not allowed to change their undergarments, which was truly unbearable. They were only allowed to sleep two hours a day, and for the rest of the time, they had to sit in a dark cell. They were watched even when they went to the bathroom, and three or four people had to follow them everywhere.

Many practitioners upheld their belief. When someone tried to "transform" them, they would recite the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

The No. 1 Team of the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Re-education Camp was an especially wicked team. Guo Kaiyang took some collaborators with her to forcefully "transform" those practitioners in the former "Tackle Fort Team" - now called the No. 2 Team. They tried for three or four days but could not "transform" one practitioner.

[Note: The following is a shortened version of a longer and more detailed article that appeared on the minghui.ca website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net).]

Officers He Xiangming, Zhou Xiangdong, Chen Yuzhou and others from the local National Security Team of Dipinghu Police Department illegally arrested practitioner Ms. Fan Changhua from Gezhouba, Yichang City, Hubei Province on January 12, 2007. They also ransacked her home and took lots of personal belongings. Fan Changhua has been held at the No. 1 Detention Center in Yichang City for nearly six months. The officials do not let her meet with her family. It was learned that agents at Gezhouba Court have secretly sentenced her to prison.

Fan Changhua has been persecuted many times since July 20, 1999. She was sentenced to 18 months of forced labor in late 2004 and was savagely tortured at Wuhan Women's Forced Labor Camp until she became incontinent. Her former workplace, the Gezhouba Machinery Factory, also called the 5th Branch of Gezhouba Group Corporation, forced her to retire from her job as a kindergarten teacher. The company paid her only a few hundred yuan a month since her release from the labor camp in 2005.

The State Security agents in Jinzhou City arrested Falun Gong practitioner Qi Mingli on May 1, 2004. He was eventually incarcerated in the Jinzhou Force Labor Camp for three years. His family member went to the camp two weeks ago to ask about his current status. The camp officials said they would release him when the term is up (May 1, 2007), but on the afternoon of April 30, an insider called his relatives. He said that Qi Mingli had already been sent to Luotaishan Brainwashing Center in Fushun City.

On May 1, Qi Mingli's relative went to the camp, asking for him. The camp staff said 610 Office agents from Shenyang and policemen from the Nanhu station in the Heping District in Shenyang (where Qi Mingli registered his permanent address) had taken him with them on April 29 at 9:00 a.m. His family members talked over the phone with the police officials in the station and verified this. The police said that it was the "610 Office" who ordered this.

On May 27, 2007, a relative telephoned the Nanhu Police Station. The vice head of the station, Wang Yongqiang, tried to shirk responsibility and refused to tell who the person in charge was. Qi Mingli's relatives then went to the Dahuofang Reservoir at the Fushun-Luotaishan Resort Brainwashing Center. After arguing with the officials there for visiting rights, the relatives finally got to see Qi Mingli. Qi Mingli told them what happened: in the camp on April 29 he was deceived by a criminal to go out "for an interview." Then, six male and one female police officers from the Shenyang "610 Office" and from the Nahu Police Station in the Heping District attempted to take him away by force. Qi Mingli refused to go with them. He asked where they came from, and why they were taking him away. These police did not give their names nor show their IDs. They pulled Qi Mingli into a van. Halfway through their trip the van had a flat tire. The police got out of the van to examine it. Qi Mingli also got out. Several police officers knocked him down to the ground and twisted his hand behind his back. They punched him and kicked him with their boots. After they had changed the flat tire, they drove him directly to the Dahuofang Reservoir at the Fushun/Luotaishan Brainwashing Center. The officials noticed his poor physical condition and did not want to accept him. However, these police officers dropped him off there and left. Before they left, one police officer said viciously, "Qi Mingli, I am going to torture you to death today."

Qi Mingli has so far been kept for nine days. He was detained in a room on the 2^nd floor. There is a specific person who monitors him 24 hours a day. Qi Mingli has been on hunger strike since his arrest. He is extremely weak, emaciated and has hollow cheeks. For the past few days brainwashing center personnel have force-fed him.

Falun Gong  practitioners are tortured and persecuted at the Wangcun Men's Forced Labor Camp located in Zibo City, Shandong Province. According to practitioners who were released after completing their illegal sentences, the labor camp  was recognized as a "civilized" labor camp by the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese law stipulates that no beatings or verbal abuse are allowed at labor camps, but behind closed doors the guards mentally and physically torture Falun Gong practitioners to try to force them to give up their beliefs in "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance."

Mr. Sun, a fifty-six-year-old practitioner from Shengli Oilfield, Dongying City, Shandong Province, was illegally sentenced to two years in the labor camp. In early 2006 he was caught distributing Master Li's lecture and was sentenced to three more months after being "strictly managed" and physically punished. During the fourteen days of "strict management," he was handcuffed to the side of the bed, but wasn't allowed to sit or lie down. He was allowed to sleep for only one or two hours a day until his legs were so swollen that he couldn't move.

The guards isolate and brainwash practitioners who are newly admitted. They don't allow them contact with the outside world or other practitioners, creating an atmosphere of terror. They continuously play audio and videotapes that slander and defame Falun Gong and force the practitioners to write "thought reports" and are expected to repeated the slanderous lies in these reports. Guards use different torture methods depending on each practitioner's circumstances. They brutally beat and abuse practitioners, forcing them to stand and face the wall for long periods of time, and don't allow them to move or sleep all day long. This method is used to forcefully "transform" them by wearing them down. Some guards pretend to be kind to the practitioners after torturing them. Practitioners who are very afraid develop a grateful attitude toward them and accept the deception that everything the guards do is for their benefit. Sometimes the guards capitalize on their victims' emotional ties with family and friends and use threats of divorce and unemployment to pressure practitioners. Others fabricate fake Falun Gong lectures to deceive practitioners in order to make them commit wrongdoing or create doubt about Master Li and Falun Gong. They also utilize the twisted logic of those who were "transformed" previously to deceive other practitioners. 

The authorities impose increased terms of imprisonment and harsher punishment for practitioners who resist the "transformation." The methods of abuse include:

1. Intimidation, threats, brutal beatings, and handcuffing

2. The use of electric batons and confinement in solitary compartments, including a cage in the basement.

3. Hanging a victim up or shackling them to a fixed location, not allowing them move, and limiting sleep to one or two hours a day.

4. Sending practitioners to the "Assualt Team." This means they send practitioners who are steadfast to the ordinary criminal inmates' teams. The authorities then take advantage of the labor camp inmates. These inmates often brutally beat practitioners in an attempt to reduce their own sentences. Every day, from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. or midnight, practitioners are forced to sit on a very small stool. They sit until their legs are in pain and numb and their buttocks are raw and peeling. They aren't allowed to move or go to the bathroom. Practitioner Mr. Liu, in his fifties, and Mr. Wang, in his forties, were both tortured with this method until they defecated in their pants.

5. The guards won't allow practitioners to go to the bathroom before 3 a.m., or bathe or change clothes in the months of July and August, when the weather is hottest. Practitioners aren't given any freedom and are assigned heavy labor tasks.

The following three cases are from the 7th Group of the 2nd Branch of Wangcun Men's Forced Labor Camp:

Mr. Shen, a fifty-nine-year-old practitioner, was illegally sentenced to three years of labor in March 2004. Because he refused to write the three statements and kept declaring "Falun Dafa is good," the guards incarcerated him in the basement on April 5, 2005. He was cuffed to the pipes and allowed to sleep for only one or two hours a day. Thirty-three days later he was sent to the "strict management team" for more persecution.

Mr. Wang, a practitioner in his twenties, was taken to the guardroom one day. Three guards took turns shocking him all over his body with electric batons. They placed an electric baton inside Mr. Wang's mouth, which was severely burned. He had difficulty eating for a long time. His inner thighs were also burned by electric shock and he was unable to walk.

Mr. Zhang, a fifty-four-year-old practitioner, lives at #109 of the Development Zone of Juye County, Liao City. At the end of 2005, he was illegally sentenced to the labor camp for one year and three months. Mr. Zhang refused to be "transformed" and wouldn't cooperate with the authorities. Because he refused to compromise, he suffered tremendous beatings. As a result, his teeth became loose. He couldn't eat solid food, and he could only eat porridge and vegetable soup. He was very pale and thin, and was barely alive. They kept him incarcerated in this condition and wouldn't allow him any freedom. Two policemen carried him home on a stretcher when he completed his sentence on March 11, 2007. At the end of February 2007, the newly promoted deputy group head Wang Xinjiang came to the "strict management team" to verbally abuse the practitioners. In order to show off his power, Wang ordered the barely breathing Mr. Zhang to open the door for him. Mr. Zhang refused, which infuriated him. On February 27, when Mr. Zhang went to the bathroom, the guards beat him until his nose and mouth bled profusely. On March 1, Mr. Li, a practitioner in the labor camp, sought out Luo Guangming and Li Gongming and tried to reason with them regarding Mr. Zhang's treatment. Practitioner Li was instead kicked by Group Head Gao and was handcuffed for several hours.

Similar incidents occur on a daily basis. These practitioners who steadfastly resist the persecution have suffered tremendous torture.

Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Wang Jie and Ms. Cai Shaojie from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province were illegally arrested in Tiening City, Liaoning province in October 2002. In 2003 they were illegally sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. Both of them were suffering from ruthless persecution and abuse by guards in the Women's Prison of Liaoning Province . Their lives were in danger.

Practitioner Ms. Wang Jie from Shenyang was illegally imprisoned four times

Ms. Wang Jie was a staff member of the street affairs section at the Yijing Street Administration Office. Prior to her beginning cultivation practice in 1997, she had many illnesses. She consulted many doctors at various places. Despite spending considerable sums of money, her illnesses still couldn't be cured. This led to her divorce. After practicing Falun Gong, all of her illnesses disappeared. She was diligent at work and well-respected. She remarried her husband, and her family became harmonious and happy.

In 1999, when the Communist Party started to persecute Falun Gong, Wang Jie resolutely went to Beijing to appeal and tell people the facts about Falun Gong.

The authorities arrested Wang Jie and sent her to the Longshan Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang. Along with another 39 incarcerated practitioners there, they went on a protest hunger strike to call attention to the plight of a young girl named Han Tianzi, whom the prison guards had electrically shocked. After that Wang Jie was transferred to a penitentiary located in Zaohua, also called Women's Self-strengthening School. She continued her protest hunger strike for more than 100 days. Then she was transferred to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang. The camp officials refused to accept her because of her poor health. The authorities finally called her family to take this dying woman home.

Because she was able to do the exercises and study Falun Gong teachings at home, Wang Jie recovered very fast. Two months later, when she was handing out truth-clarifying materials, someone reported her to the police. She was arrested again but broke free from her captors.

In 2001, the police raided a site for producing truth-clarifying materials, and Wang Jie was arrested for the third time. She was released following a seven-day protest hunger strike.

In October 2002, Wang Jie was arrested for the fourth time in Teiling, Liaoning Province. In 2003, she was illegally sentenced to seven years. Currently she is illegally detained in the 9th Ward of the Women's Prison of Liaoning Province. Wang Jie has gone on a protest hunger strike many times, and the police have force-fed her many times, physically harming her in the process. Her life is in danger. Even though Ms. Wang Jie has suffered terribly, she remains steadfast in her belief.

Ms. Cai Shaojie shows signs of concussion after suffering persecution

Ms. Cai Shaojie, 44 years old, employee of a subordinate enterprise at the Shenyang Geological Bureau, started to practice Falun Gong in 1996 because of ill health. She turned into a new person after practicing cultivation, becoming healthy, compassionate, and selfless.

After July 20, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong began, Cai Shaojie went to appeal and explain the facts about Falun Gong, and she was subsequently arrested.

In 2001, Cai Shaojie was arrested and taken to the 5th Detention Center of Shenyang City, but escaped with the power of her righteous thoughts.

In October 2002, Cai Shaojie was arrested in Tieling City, Liaoning Province. In 2003 she was illegally sentenced to seven years. Currently she is detained in the first ward of  the Women's Prison of Liaoning Province.

Cai Shaojie suffered cruel persecution in the prison. Because she was steadfast in her belief, the guards ordered prisoners to lift up her feet and put her head down to the ground, and they dragged her down the stairs. Her head bumped on the stairs, knocking her unconscious. For a period of time she couldn't eat anything and would vomit whatever she ate. She had other symptoms of a concussion, and as time went on her weight dropped and she became weak and thin.

During the time when Cai Shaojie was in prison, her husband suffered a stroke and had a very difficult time without her care.

On October 26, 2004, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion, working jointly with the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General's Human Rights Defenders, sent an urgent appeal concerning Wang Jie, Cai Shaojie, and non-practitioner Li Weiji. Li Weiji was being detained at Panjin Prison. It was reported that cruel beatings led to fractures in both his arms and a slipped disc, which made it difficult for him even to walk.