(Minghui.org) A Heishang County, Liaoning Province, resident was arrested on October 2, 2023 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The arresting officers from the Huangcheng Police Station took Mr. Han Chunlong to the Shenhe District Detention Center, where he remains as of today.
This is not the first time that Mr. Han has been targeted for his faith. He was previously sentenced to four years in prison following his arrest on December 11, 2012. He was brutally tortured throughout his imprisonment.
Past Persecution
Mr. Han was known to locals as a frail man. He suffered from many diseases, including tuberculosis of the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, tuberculosis of the big toe of his right foot, and kidney stones. He later had to remove his left kidney as it was no longer functioning. He struggled to walk, much less do any work. No medical treatments helped despite him spending a fortune seeking a cure. Adding insult to injury, his wife divorced him not long after they got married.
Mr. Han’s fate changed in March 1998 when he took up Falun Gong. He gradually recovered from his diseases and became stronger. He also quit smoking and playing table games (which take up a lot of time and usually involve gambling). He was able to work again. He remarried and started a vendor business with his new wife. The couple’s happy life didn’t last long though. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Mr. Han was targeted for upholding his faith.
Deputy chief Xu Guizhou of the Heishan County Police Department led officers Xiao Zhongying, Bi Shijun and Yang to Mr. Han’s vendor booth on September 5, 2001. They intended to arrest him but ended up seizing another practitioner after mistaking the latter for him.
Officer Feng Jiang from the Heishan County Police Department arrested Mr. Han on July 1, 2011. He gave him a savage beating before taking him to a local detention center. Two weeks later, Mr. Han was taken to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, which declined to admit him after he failed the required physical examination. The police then released him.
Mr. Han was arrested on December 11, 2012, while on a business trip in Dandong City, Liaoning Province. The arresting officers broke into his hotel room and confiscated two laptops, two cell phones, a wallet, cash, and bank cards. They took him to the Sidaoqiao Police Station and beat him in an area without surveillance cameras. They also slapped him in the face and pepper sprayed him. He kept coughing and felt burning pain on his face. The police then grabbed his hand to sign their interrogation records.
The police had attempted to take Mr. Han to the Dandong City Detention Center that night but failed due to incomplete paperwork. The next day, they fabricated some paperwork and got him admitted to the detention center, even though he was found to have high blood pressure and rapid heart rate during the required physical examination. He told the doctor examining him that the police beat him so hard that his left ear became deaf and his right leg was swollen and limped. He also felt lasting intensive pain on his chest and back.
The detention center guards kept torturing Mr. Han despite his already worrisome condition. He went on a hunger strike in protest and was force fed seven days later. Under the directive of director Wang Jing and vice director Lang Zhenshan, the guards inserted a tube into Mr. Han’s nose down to his stomach and force fed him three times a day without ever taking out the tube after each session. They also inserted a catheter into his urethra and kept it there around the clock. At night, they kept his hands cuffed even though he was already extremely weak and disoriented.
Mr. Han later became wheelchair bound and incapacitated. His family requested he be released, but chief prosecutor Wang Xuping of the Zhenxing District Procuratorate in Dandong City refused to revoke his arrest warrant and said, “It’d be great if he’s sentenced to death!”
On January 24, 2013, Mr. Han began to feel pain on the right side of his lower back and abdomen. He had no urine at all that day and his body temperature reached 38.5oC (101.3oF). The detention center guards finally took him to Dandong Central Hospital (also known as Second Hospital). He was found to have renal insufficiency, bilateral hydronephrosis and infection, bilateral kidney stones, ureteral stones, urinary tract infection, and bladder stones.
After several days of hospitalization, Mr. Han was taken back to the detention center, even though he had not recovered.
The Zhenxing District Court tried Mr. Han on April 12, 2013. He and his two lawyers testified against the police for fabricating evidence and beating him. Judge Tao Zhanhua removed the lawyers from the courtroom in retaliation. When the lawyers warned Tao he was violating the law in doing so, he responded, “You say I broke the law and must bear responsibility, so what! As long as the Chinese Communist Party is still in power, I’ll never shoulder any responsibility!”
Tao later admitted to the lawyers (after the hearing) that he had to prosecute their client per the orders from the 610 Office and the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, both extra-judicial agencies tasked with overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong.
When a second hearing was held on May 28, 2013, Tao did not allow Mr. Han’s family to go inside the courtroom. He even ordered bailiffs to hold Mr. Han’s parents in custody for two hours until the hearing was over.
Tao sentenced Mr. Han to four years on May 31, 2013 and he was taken to the in-house hospital in Kangjiashan Prison (located in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province). The feeding tube was still in his nose during the prison transfer, and his right leg was still swollen at that time.
Left: Mr. Han transferred to prison with feeding tube still inRight: Mr. Han’s right leg remained swollen six months after police beating on December 11, 2012
Related report:
Severe Mistreatment of Mr. Han Chunlong and Mr. Chen Xinye by Police and Judicial Departments
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