Sentenced Twice for His Faith, to 10 and 7 years, Gansu Man Recounts Torture during 2nd Term

(Minghui.org) Mr. Jin Jilin returned home from Lanzhou Prison on July 1, 2022, after serving seven years in prison for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. This was the 57-year-old man’s second prison term following an earlier term of 10 years handed down in 2002. 

During his first prison term from 2002 to 2012, Mr. Jin lost his grandmother, mother, and wife, after they succumbed to the mental distress of the persecution. His brother-in-law, who supported the family all by himself, also died in a car accident in August 2012. His father, nearly 80, died years later during his second prison term.

First Prison Term

Mr. Jin was arrested on May 3, 2002, when he went to visit a practitioner, not knowing that the latter had been arrested earlier. The Yuzhong County Court sentenced him to 10 years on October 28, 2002. In prison, he was deprived of sleep, denied restroom use, beaten severely, and made to stand for long periods of time. They also poked his eyes with their fingers, rubbed his head with wooden boards, stabbed him with pins, and choked him. Sometimes, the inmates poured boiling water on his neck during the day and stripped off his clothes and poured cold water on him at night. He was released on August 25, 2012.

Arrested and Sentenced Again

Mr. Jin was arrested again at his rental home by the police from Lanzhou City Domestic Security Division on July 2, 2015. He was first detained in Yuzhong County Lockup and then transferred to Yuzhong County Detention Center. The Yuzhong County Court sentenced him to seven years in Lanzhou Prison on June 22, 2016.

Mr. Jin endured inhuman torture in prison. He was hung up at night during the 15 days when he was deprived of sleep. During the day, he was forced to stand for long hours. The guards starved him by giving him one steamed bun and one glass of water only for the whole day. He was once not allowed to wash himself for two months. He was emaciated and on the verge of collapse.

Below is Mr. Jin’s account of what he endured.

***

I was forced to do unpaid work in the cloth production workshop in the 7th Ward. In 2020 during the pandemic, I was assigned to pack personal protection clothing. The heavy workload left me exhausted every day. My body ached and I was sore all over.

Ward chief Wei Zhoudong, instructor Han Xiangling, and group heads Shi Yongning and Li Guangqing transferred me to another cell on November 30, 2020. Four inmates, Duan Wenjun, Wei Caichao, Yang Xiaoming and Yue Xiangtian, were ordered to torture me by giving me only one steamed bun and one glass of water for the whole day and restricting my restroom use and sleep time. During the limited time I was allowed to use the restroom, the guards often verbally abused me.

The guards emptied a room in the cloth production workshop to detain me during the day. The four inmates took me there in the morning and handcuffed me to the heating pipe in the corner of the room. Then they took me back to the cell after work and hung me up to the rail of the upper bunk bed until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. With no heat during the winter, I was so cold that I became stiff and numb. 

The only bedding they gave me was a comforter, so I had to keep all my clothes on to sleep on the bare bed frame with one of my hands cuffed to the leg of the bed.

I went on a hunger strike to protest not having enough to eat. They deceived me and persuaded me to eat again. But I was still given only one steamed bun and a glass of water for the entire day afterward.

One day, inmates Duan Wenjun and Yue Xiangtian told me that deputy instructor Guo Dong and instructor Han Xiangling had told them to beat me, but only on the soft flesh so they wouldn’t leave any marks. They warned me that many inmates had died like this and they would not be held accountable if I died. Wei said the prison had deemed them my superiors. Duan beat me once and Yue twice. 

They did not let me wash myself. I only washed my face, brushed my teeth, and shaved once in two months. At the same time, they berated me for smelling so bad. I struggled to live despite hunger, cold, thirst, fatigue, and lack of sleep.

On February 24, 2021, Li Guangqing directed the four inmates who watched me to hang me up overnight by the bunkbed, where the view of the surveillance camera was blocked. I was not let down until dawn. The pain in my wrists from the tight handcuffs was excruciating, and I completely lost sensation in my arms afterward—I felt as if I didn’t have arms. I was still taken to the guard’s office during the day and forced to stand all day. 

I became so emaciated that my pants kept falling down. The inmate on night duty had to help me pull up my pants. The sleep deprivation lasted for 15 days. All that time I did not take off my shoes, which became smelly with sticky insoles. My soles became swollen and cracked.

Beginning on March 11, 2021, the hanging torture stopped at 2 a.m. and I was allowed a few hours of sleep before the start of another round of torture. Yet I still had to sleep on a bare bed frame with one hand cuffed to the bed. I was still given no breakfast or water and not allowed to go to the toilet or wash myself in the morning. Besides one steamed bun at lunch, I was given another steamed bun for dinner, but no vegetables.

A guard came to my cell on the night of March 17 and ordered the four inmates to handcuff me to the lower bed frame instead of the upper rail. I later learned that the prosecutor stationed at the prison saw me hanging up on the surveillance camera and ordered them to take me down.

I was given some vegetables with one bun at lunch and dinner starting on April 14, but it was still far from enough. I wasn’t given enough drinking water either. People could hardly recognize me by then. I was so weak that I began to wobble as I walked. When I got up at 6 a.m., my hand was numb from being handcuffed to the bed and I had hard time buttoning my clothes.

My handcuffs were taken off on May 18, 2021. I was given a bed pad five days later. It turned out that an inspection team from the Supreme Procuratorate was now stationed in Lanzhou Prison. But I was still forced to stand up for 20 hours daily and not given full meals.

My legs were swollen and bruised from the knees down as a result of the torture. I demanded a meeting with the prosecutor of the inspection team but was turned down.

After the inspection team left on June 18, the prison officials retaliated against me with more severe torture and abuse. They stopped giving me vegetables at meals. I was dizzy again by the end of August and wobbled as I walked. They let me sit on a stool during the day starting on September 21, 2021, but I still had to stand until 2:00 a.m. every night.

I was given more to eat as my release day neared. I was allowed to wash myself and eat breakfast beginning on April 10, 2022, and got full meals for lunch and dinner as well. The standing torture at night ended 40 minutes earlier.

Not until May 26, one month and four days before my term ended, was I allowed to sleep normal hours. 

Perpetrators in Lanzhou Prison:

Zhang Yongwei (张永维), prison director: [phone]Lyu Yong (吕勇), deputy prison director: [phone]Wei Zhoudong (魏周东), 7th Ward chief: [phone]Chen Heping (陈和平), 7th Ward instructor: [phone]Guo Dong (郭栋),7th Ward deputy instructor: [phone]Shi Yongning (师永宁), 7th Ward section head guard: [phone]Han Xiangling (韩湘凌), 7th Ward political instructor: [phone]Li Guangqing (李光清), 7th Ward section head guard: [phone]Li Ling (李凌), 7th Ward deputy instructorDuan Wenjun (段文俊), Wei Caichao (魏才超), Yang Xiaoming (杨晓明) and Yue Xiangtian (岳想田), inmates

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related reports:

17 Years of Imprisonment and Family Agony

Mr. Jin Jilin Upholds His Belief in Falun Gong Throughout an Agonizing 10-Year Imprisonment