(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Li Zhanxian. I was born in 1952 in Qidong County, Hunan Province. I live at Unit 201, Building No. 2, of the Chenzhou City Air Conditioning Equipments Factory. I was an employee of the factory until it went bankrupt. I make a living by delivering natural gas tanks. My wife and I are both Falun Gong practitioners. Before I started the practice, I had many illnesses, I was old and incredibly thin, and suffered pain beyond description.
I began to practice Falun Gong in 1994 and rapidly recovered my health and appeared younger. I am now over 50 years old, but others think me to be only over 40 years old. After my workplace went bankrupt, I had to do the kind of work that more youthful people usually do. I deliver gas tanks by bike every day, and carry them to the fourth or fifth floors without feeling tired. All these benefits come from practicing Falun Gong for many years.
Since beginning the practice, not only did my body become healthy, but my morality has improved based on the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Last year, my wife and I picked up 600 yuan and 68,000 yuan cash successively and returned both sums to their rightful owners. This is common behavior among Falun Dafa practitioners. However, if I were not a practitioner, it would have been absolutely impossible for me to do this in the current atmosphere of materialism and avoiding hardship.
Such a popular practice that teaches people to be kind was banned overnight. Because I refused to renounce the practice, I have encountered continuous persecution from the 610 Office and the national security and public security departments. I have experienced detention, fines, beatings and forced labor. On August 19, 2004, officials from the public security bureau in Guiyang County arrested me and here I remain. Therefore, according to my rights given by the Constitution, I am reporting the persecution I have suffered. I hope you can examine the Falun Gong issue objectively and comprehensively and help end this catastrophe.
Evidence of Persecution:
In July 1999, I came off duty and opened a bookstore. Chen Bingzhi from the Chenzhou Public Security Bureau led a group of people to rush into my bookstore. They confiscated several thousand Falun Gong books and a bankbook with 23,000 "yuan" in deposits. They only listed a small portion of the confiscated books and took other books and cash without giving me a receipt.
In order to deprive me of my belief and prevent me from practicing Falun Gong, the 610 Office and the national security and public security departments ordered twenty families from my workplace to frequently harass me at home. My workplace even set up a so-called guidance team and instigated agents to monitor and follow me. If they saw anything deemed "unusual", they would arrest me. One day in 1999, my wife's younger sister came to our home. The following day, Wu Ziqiang from the Beihu District Public Security Bureau took me away and interrogated me for the whole morning, and also questioned my wife and child. In December of 1999, Li Hui, a young man from my workplace, visited me at home. As soon as he sat down, a police car from the Chenzhou Public Security Bureau arrived. Police from the Beihu District Public Security Bureau rushed into my home and took the two of us to the detention center. They accused us of "attempting to practice Falun Gong and undermining the return of Macao." This charge was very odd, but the Chenzhou Daily actually published a big report with that title. When I was sent to the detention center, the police incited officials to "take a good care of them" (implying that the head of prison should beat us). It was a cold winter, and at nighttime it was even chillier. The prisoners pulled off our clothes and pushed us into a pool under the water tap to soak both of us with ice-cold water. For the next three days, they beat and kicked us, carried out all sorts of torture and forcibly grabbed cash, bankbooks and personal belongings from us. The prisoners later explained to us, "We are sorry. The police told us that if we didn't beat you, they would beat us."
In February 2000, Chen Zhibing again took me from my home and sent me to the Luosiling Detention Center in Chenzhou. As soon as I got there, the prisoners showered me with cold water. They slowly poured ice-cold water from my head down my body for 40 minutes; they pulled off my clothes and three prisoners punched my chest 150 times; they put my hands on the steel plate of a bed and a cement tile, and then hit my fingers with a wooden board or plastic shoe sole; they wet new towels and twisted them, and then fiercely whipped my belly and lower abdomen; they forced me to stand straight three steps from a wall and smashed my head into it. If my hands moved or the movements did not meet their criterion, it would not count and I had to redo it. They smashed my head into the wall three times a day for 28 days. I was set free after 67 days of detention.
On the morning of October 9, 2000, not long after I got up, Wu Ziqiang and other policemen from the politics and protection section of the Beihu District Public Security Bureau arrested me at home, and took me directly to the Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp in Changsha. The charge was selling Falun Gong books. It was a fabricated charge.
I opened a bookstore and purchased books through regular channels before July 1999. They arrested me, and confiscated my money and books without giving me a receipt, while they claimed that I had violated the law. We all know that practicing Falun Gong was allowed before July 1999 and Falun Gong books were sold in Xinhua Bookstores. Furthermore, the Falun Gong assistance center of Chenzhou City was registered and approved by the Physical Culture Commission. Putting aside the invalidity of suppressing Falun Gong, they went into my dealings before July 1999, which also violates the principle of executing the rule of law. Because of this, I repeatedly appealed, but did not get any reply. In 2002, I was released after serving one and a half years of imprisonment. At 9 a.m. on August 19, 2004, I was unexpectedly arrested in Huaning Park in Chenzhou City by several unidentified people and sent to the Guiyang Party School. Afterwards I learned that those people were from the national protection team of the Guiyang Public Security Bureau. In the party school, they cuffed my hands and feet. They did not issue the detention notice until 4 p.m. the next day. They deprived of me of sleep for five consecutive days and nights and interrogated me using torture. I was extremely tired and my mind was unclear, so under prompting by the case officer, I signed the "affidavit" that they wanted. They said, "Chen Bingzhi took over 20,000 yuan from you, and you put him into an awkward situation. This time, I can sentence you at least ten years." From their words, I realized they were treating me this way in retaliation and venting their anger.
On November 15, 2004, the Guiyang Court heard this case. While bringing me out of the detention center, the bailiff shouted and abused me. During the five-hour hearing, my attorney vehemently denounced and refuted the so-called "evidence." The public prosecutor spoke incoherently and was unable to advance any further arguments to justify the charges. Finally during the defense's presentation, unexpectedly the judge curtailed my right to defend myself, only allowing us to make one statement. Then he announced the end of the hearing. As soon as the hearing was finished, one of the bailiffs scolded my attorney in public.
I was still sentenced to three years and six months in prison, although there was a lack of sufficient evidence. I was not convinced, so in mid December 2004, I appealed to the Chenzhou City Intermediate Court. Half of a year passed; I finally received the written verdict of final judgment from the intermediate court (far exceeding the legal deadline for the second trial). The judgment of the intermediate court was that I had not provided any testimony to substantiate the claim of torture by the police. The decision was that the original trial was recognized, that the evidence was sufficient and that therefore the original decision stood.
In summary, the 610 Office and the national security and public security departments have deprived me of my right to practice my belief, willfully manufactured the charge against me, arrested and detained me, forced me to perform hard labor, interrogated me using torture, and secretly incited prisoners to torture me. They wantonly insulted and slandered me personally, ransacked my home, extorted property and money from me without a receipt or a written list, isolated, detained and brainwashed me, tapped my phones and more. All these acts were clearly outside of the law and severely ignored human rights.
