(Minghui.org) A Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province resident was subjected to yet another round of torture in July 2023 while serving ten years and eight months for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The guards at the Hulan Prison in Harbin City pepper sprayed Mr. Li Lizhuang in the face, groin area and anus. They also shocked him on those areas with electric batons. They force-fed him urine, beat him savagely and verbally abused him. After that, they put a straitjacket on him and did not allow him to sleep for two straight nights. Mr. Li had bruises and wounds on his face and it took him many days to heal. The marks on his legs after being repeatedly kicked, however, are still visible as of today.
As Mr. Li remained firm in his faith, the guards also revoked his in-person visits and phone calls with his family. Other jailed Falun Gong practitioners who refused to renounce their faith faced similar torture and punishment.
The chief perpetrators included guards Sun Weixin, Li Lianwei, and Wang Yong. They had confiscated Falun Gong teachings from Mr. Li, Mr. Liu Hao and two other Falun Gong practitioners days prior, during a routine search of their cells. The latter three practitioners requested the return of their confiscated items, but were whipped, shocked with electric batons, and pepper sprayed by guard Sun.
Mr. Li, an orthopedic doctor at the First Hospital of Harbin Medical University, lost his job for practicing Falun Gong. He was given two years of forced labor in May 2001 and sentenced to four years in prison in July 2002. After his latest arrest in April 2020, he was sentenced to ten years and eight months. He has been subjected to various forms of torture since he was admitted to the Hulan Prison on February 17, 2022. See related reports below for accounts of his earlier torture episodes in the prison.
Hulan Prison was designed as a maximum security prison to hold those who were sentenced to death, life, or at least 15 years. But it has become a main prison to detain Falun Gong practitioners during the past 24 years of persecution. After the pandemic broke out in 2020, the then-newly-appointed warden Wei Yuchuan and his deputy warden Deng Xiaogeng intensified the persecution of jailed Falun Gong practitioners. They forced the practitioners to sit on small stools for extended periods of time and subjected them to other forms of abuse. Those who refused to renounce their faith were placed in the Strict Management Team, where they were often held in solitary confinement.
According to available statistics, at least 17 Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of torture endured in the prison. Most recently, Mr. Li Min, 52, died on July 6, 2022, less than four years after he served 5.5 years in the prison and was brutally tortured. Mr. Ge Zhenhua died on October 22, 2022 while serving 7 years. He was 67.
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