Chengdu Man Beaten at a Hotel-turned Detention Site, Incurred Injuries in His Leg and Gallbladder

(Minghui.org) A 53-year-old man in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province suffered fractures in his left leg and inflammation of the gallbladder, after being beaten by the police for practicing Falun Gong. He was operated on and had his gallbladder removed. Now he is facing prosecution after the Pengzhou City Procuratorate approved his arrest.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Liu Jia was arrested on January 6, 2022, while driving to the nearby Pengzhou City for an errand. The police ransacked his home in the afternoon, confiscating his seven computers, three cellphones, a printer, a set of Falun Gong books, 2,000 yuan in cash and his car. 

Mr. Liu was brought to the fourth floor of “Urban Cloud Hotel” in Pengzhou and put on residence surveillance. There was a surveillance camera in the room. All of the windows were covered and no light came in. Several people took turns monitoring him. 

As Mr. Liu refused to tell the police the password to his cellphones, they took him to a room without a surveillance camera and beat him, causing fracture of his left leg and inflammation of his gallbladder. He was then taken to the hospital to have his gallbladder removed.

Mr. Liu was kept in the hotel for 18 days. With his lawyer’s intervention, the police transferred him to the Pengzhou City Detention Center on January 24. When he was admitted, both of his legs were severely swollen and he was unable to stand or walk on his own. There was also swelling on his right knee. The guards didn’t require him to go through a physical examination, but took off all of his clothes in the lobby and took pictures of his legs. 

One day before Mr. Liu was transferred away, another practitioner, Ms. Huang Sulan, who was arrested on January 20 and held in the same hotel, suddenly died there on January 23.