In November and December 2008, the 610 Office and police in Fangzi District, Weifang City, Shandong Province arrested Falun Gong practitioners, confiscated their personal belongs, and extorted money from their families.

Seven Years of Unlawful Imprisonment and "Dungeon Style" Torture

Mr. Feng Zhen from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, was imprisoned for seven years in Shayang-Fanjiatai Prison because of his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the principles of Falun Gong. On October 28, 2008, the day of his release, Feng Zhen was abducted again by the police and taken to Yangyuan Brainwashing Center in Wuchang City.

Feng Zhen's relatives had traveled several hundred miles to the prison to get him. As they were waiting for the paperwork for his release, they were unexpectedly informed that because of Feng Zhen's sickness, he had already been transferred out of the prison the night before. The family didn't believe this and continued asking about Feng Zhen's whereabouts. A prison guard told them that Feng Zhen had been taken away by officers from Zhongnan Road Police Station in Wuchang District, Wuhan City. When Feng Zhen's family called the police station to check, they were informed that Feng Zhen wasn't there. Therefore, they approached the prison guards for more information. This time the head of the prison came and told them that Feng had been taken away by the 610 Office in Wuhan City, and he strongly advised Feng's family to return to Wuhan.

Feng Zhen's relatives arrived at the prison about 6:00 a.m. After a long trip, and they negotiated with the prison officials until after 10:00 a.m. Eventually, they left the prison, as they had no alternative but to believe what the warden told them.

Immediately after Feng's family left the prison, officials from the 610 Office and Wuchang's Zhongnan Road Police Station, along with other prison guards, forcibly tied Feng Zhen's hands behind his back and pushed him into a police vehicle. They then took him to Yanyuan Brainwashing Center in Wuhan City, which is located inside a huge compound near the banks of the Yangtze River. It was not until Feng Zhen's family returned to Wuhan City that they were informed about his transfer to the Yanyuan Brainwashing Center, which is notorious for brutal torture.

Having traveled several hundred miles back and forth, Feng Zhen's family finally arrived at Yanyuan Brainwashing Center, where two people came to the gate to talk to them. They said that Feng Zhen was in the compound, but he would not be released, as he was to be re-educated like a "loved one," enabling him "to give up practicing Falun Gong." Since Feng Zhen's family were exhausted, they begged for the chance to see him, even though they knew these people didn't have the right to keep him. Feng Zhen's family were then permitted to enter the main gate to visit him.

Feng Zhen has now returned home from Yanyuan Brainwashing Center. Below are details of what has taken place during the last seven years.

1. In Qinduankou Prison

Seven years ago, Feng Zhen was illegally sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because he practiced Falun Gong. He was initially detained in Qinduankou prison, which is located on the western outskirts of Hangyang District in Wuhan City. The procedures for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners was personally organized by Deng Kailiang, who was then the political commissar. In this prison in particular, the practitioners were first detained in the 17^th Ward, which was specifically set up for that purpose. Prison guard Liu Wensheng was the political instructor for the 17^th Ward and primarily responsible for carrying out the persecution there.

Liu trained a lot of cruel, vicious criminals to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. All of the Falun Gong practitioners who were illegally sentenced to imprisonment in the province were detained in one of three prisons: Qinduankou Prison, Fanjiatai Prison, and Hanxi Women's Prison in Hankou City, all of which had criminals trained by Liu. Liu gave direct orders to criminals, including Mei Jianfeng and Yang Mengxiang, who were among the thugs beating Falun Gong practitioners with wooden benches and steel pipes. They also punched and kicked practitioners until they were severely injured. In addition to the beatings, the practitioners were forced to perform slave labor.

After going through the initial torture, Falun Gong practitioners were then divided into different wards to receive further persecution. Every practitioner was to be monitored by one or more inmates, around the clock, which even included using the toilet. They were not given water for doing their own washing, but had to do things for the inmate cell heads.

On March 10, 2006, at a "rally of criticism" in Qinduankou Prison, practitioners Feng Zhen and Zhou Jiangang were brutally tortured by inmates on direct instructions from prison guard Qin, for shouting "Falun Dafa is good." They were then put into solitary confinement until April 25, 2006, causing Zhou Jiangang's health to seriously deteriorate. He was close to dying.

2. In Shayang-Fanjiatai Prison

After the persecution was exposed to the international community, it sparked widespread condemnation and criticism. For the sake of evading exposure by overseas media, CCP officials had 36 Falun Gong practitioners, including Mr. Feng Zhen, transferred separately in two groups, to a sparsely populated and relatively isolated area, where Shayang-Fanjiatai prison is located. The transfers were undertaken in February and March of 2007.

At that time, Fanjiatai Prison held 56 Falun Gong practitioners, including 20 who had been previously detained. The prison set up three new sections: the 1st Section of the 4th Ward, the 2nd Section of the 4th Ward, the 7th Section of the 3rd Ward. In each section, there were one prison guard and two inmate monitors for each Falun Gong practitioner. In addition, three criminals were ordered to be on-duty in each prison cell for close monitoring of the Falun Gong practitioners day and night. The practitioners were locked inside the cells around the clock. Brushing teeth, using the toilet, eating, and sleeping had to be carried out as a group. Falun Gong practitioners were allowed to go in or out of a cell only when accompanied by a lead monitor, and if the on-duty monitoring inmates also agreed to it.

In each cell, inmates forced the Falun Gong practitioners to sit in front of their beds, and did not allow them to talk to other practitioners. At times they were sent to solitary confinement, completely cut off from contact.

The prison staff used various excuses to return packages sent by the families of Falun Gong practitioners. For daily necessities, spending was limited to less than 100 yuan per month. Forced head-shaving was done twice a month. Mosquito netting was not allowed to be used in the summer, even though there were many mosquitoes. As soon as practitioners sat on the bed or a bench with their eyes closed during a break or at noon, the guards made the inmate monitors disrupt them at once from getting a moment of quiet or rest. This was intended to wear down the practitioners' resolve in the long run.

Usually, Fanjiatai Prison allows inmates to visit with their families whenever they came, but the families of Falun Gong practitioners were only allowed to visit once a month. In addition, the family members of practitioners had to obtain a certificate from the local 610 Office stating that they did not practice Falun Gong themselves. No practitioners were allowed to visit.

3. Out of One Bad Situation and Into Another

Today, although Feng Zhen completed his prison term, he has been transferred to the Yangyuan Brainwashing Center.

The staff at the Yangyuan Brainwashing Center have used torture, drugs, intimidation, and other means to assault Falun Gong practitioners both physically and mentally. This diminished somewhat after the persecution was widely exposed outwardly, but continued in a more covert fashion.

Currently, guards control the amount of sleep a Falun Gong practitioner can have depending on how determined the practitioner is. If a practitioner does not cooperate, he is deprived of more sleep and then flooded with false scriptures to confuse him. If the practitioner still does not give in to them and give up Falun Gong, they will start to use other means. For example,

(1.) The guards put a practitioner into a conference room that has covered windows and locked doors. Several men wave long sticks and bang the table while interrogating the practitioner. They berate the practitioner and throw water at the practitioner's face to intimidate him.

(2.) Handcuffs are used to chain the practitioner to the bars of a window. Sometimes, both hands are held up and attached, and sometimes one hand is handcuffed high and one hand is handcuffed low. All the while the guards berate the practitioner. Sometimes the practitioner is taken to a solitary confinement cell and handcuffed with both arms outstretched to the side. In the summer time, the solitary cell is extremely hot and infested by mosquitoes and bugs.

(3.) The practitioner is forced to stand on a piece of paper that slanders the founder of Falun Gong. Sometimes the guards will ruin Teacher's picture in front of the practitioner. They force the practitioner to count character strokes of slogans slandering Falun Gong and Teacher, and force the practitioner to read the text out loud. If the practitioner does not cooperate, they start beating the practitioner. Some practitioners' hands were injured or broken by the handcuffing, and the guards then beat the injured spots.

(4.) Practitioners are forced to stand under the sweltering sun until they are burned and dehydrated.

(5.) Practitioners are forced to run. If the practitioner can no longer run, two people pull the practitioner around. During these days, the practitioner is not allowed to sleep at all. The purpose is to wear down the practitioners physically and mentally, so that they will be more apt to give up Falun Gong in an exhausted state.

(6.) Drugs are hidden in food or directly injected into practitioners.

The head of the former practitioners who became collaborators was Gong Lianghan. She worked very hard to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. According to former 610 Office members, Gong Lianghan wrote a booklet on how to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners. She organized her brainwashing techniques and various other torture means, and distributed her booklet everywhere. She has visited almost every brainwashing center in Wuhan and persecuted many Falun Gong practitioners.

Individuals who have taken part in persecuting Falun gong practitioners:

Head of the 4th Ward of Shayang Prison: Shen Jianjun. His police badge number is 4244350.

The warden's police badge number is 4244321.

Phone number of the prison: 86-724-8570035

Yangyuan Brainwashing Center Director: 86-27-65172069

Police in Weifang City Continue to Arrest Falun Gong Practitioners

In the last month or so, Yu Tinghuo, the head of Fangzi District 610 Office in Weifang City, Shandong Province, has teamed up with the leader of the Domestic Security Team, Shang Jingyuan and Wang Quanfeng to organize a number of police stations to arrest and harass many Falun Gong practitioners. Officers have ended up searching every practitioner's home, confiscating their personal assets, including all their most valuable items, and have also extorted money from their families.

On the morning of November 5, 2008, agents from Fangzi District 610 Office, along with the Domestic Security Team and officers from Heng'an Police Station to break into practitioner Ms. Yang Ailan's home in Gaojiacun. They arrested Ms. Yang and took her to the police station to be detained. They also searched her home and confiscated all her Falun Gong books and Falun Gong truth-clarification materials. After they extorted 5,000 yuan from Ms. Yang's family, they released her with a bogus explanation of "bailing her out for medical reasons." Officers continued to harass her after her release, which has seriously interfered with her family life.

On November 6, at the instigation of the 610 Office and Domestic Security Team, police officers from Jiulong Street Police Station in Fangzi District broke into practitioner Feng Shouai's home in Xiaofengjia Village. They arrested her and took her away. They confiscated her Falun Gong books and truth-clarification materials and took her to Weifang Detention Center on the same day. On November 7, Ms. Feng was sentenced to 18 months in a forced labor camp. It has been reported that she has already been taken to Wangcun Forced Labor Camp.

On the morning of November 25, practitioner Mr. Li Hanjun from Zhujiaying School, who was at work, was taken away by officers from Jiulongjie Police Station. At noon, his home in Shangzhuang Village was searched. Officers couldn't find anything, so they ended up confiscating his computer. Mr. Li was held in Weifang Detention Center. On November 28, his family members went to the district Domestic Security Team to demand his release, but were intimidated by police officer Zhao, who demanded 20,000 yuan in exchange for Mr. Li's release.

At about 2:30 p.m., on December 2, a few officers from Fenghuang Police Station in Fangzi District suddenly broke into practitioner Mr. Zhang Guanghua's home in Nangouxi Village. They tried to force him to relinquish his Falun Gong books but he refused and tried to stop them from searching his home. Due to his opposition, the police couldn't arrest him, so they arranged for a large number of officers in nearly ten additional police vehicles to come over for reinforcement. Several officers carried Mr. Zhang into the police vehicle. His home was ransacked, and his Falun Gong books, a laptop, two printers, and all truth-clarification materials were confiscated. Currently, Mr. Zhang is being being held in Weifang Detention Center.

On December 3, police officers arrested and took away Mr. Yuan Penghan from Musan Village. He had 10,000 yuan extorted from him, and his Falun Gong books and a DVD player were confiscated.

A practitioner with the last name of Zhang, from Deng Village, was arrested and was not released until his family shelled out 3,000 yuan. Officials from the local police station also searched two practitioners' homes in Xindong Village and Fangzi District.

Yu Ting, Head of the 610 Office in Fangzi District: 86-13906369997(Cell) 86-536-7608610(Office) 86-536-7918896(Home)

Shang Jingyuan, Head of the Domestic Security Team in Fangzi District: 86-536-7602829 (Home)86-536-7602754(Office)