(Minghui.org) A 72-year-old retired teacher in Pingyuan County, Shandong Province is still struggling with some severe mental and physical health conditions, years after he endured two years of abuse and involuntary administration of toxic drugs in a prison for practicing Falun Gong.
Mr. Wang Jinhua reports hearing voices and having racing thoughts. He cannot talk clearly and is confused at times. He has trouble falling asleep and also experiences tightness in his chest and bloated stomach.
Mr. Wang took up Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline, in March 1997. Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong after the communist regime launched the nationwide persecution in 1999, he was arrested nine times and forced to pay over 150,000 yuan by the authorities.
Latest Arrest Followed by Two-Year Prison Sentence
Mr. Wang was arrested on March 5, 2018 after being reported for putting up Falun Gong posters on February 28 that year. As the Dezhou City Detention Center refused to admit him due to his high blood pressure, he was released on March 17 on bail.
After the police submitted Mr. Wang’s case to the Xiajin County Procuratorate, the prosecutor twice returned his case, citing insufficient evidence. To collect information against him, Wang Hongjiang, the head of Pingyuan County Domestic Security Office, and deputy head Yao Jiakai added in his case file from an earlier arrest on April 18, 2017 for distributing Falun Gong materials near a cigarette factory, which resulted in a 14-day detention.
The Xiajin District Procuratorate on May 29, 2019 indicted Mr. Wang on charges of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” a standard pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners.
Mr. Wang appeared in the Xiajin County Court on July 18, 2019 and was sentenced to two years with a 5,000-yuan fine on August 7, 2019.
Developed Mental Issues in the Prison
Due to Mr. Wang’s high blood pressure, he wasn’t immediately taken into custody following his sentencing. On October 8, 2019, police officer Yao informed him to do another physical examination the next day. Despite his persistent high blood pressure, the court instructed the police to directly take him to the Shandong Province Prison on October 10, 2019, after the local detention center denied his admission. He was held in a northernmost, isolated room on the fourth floor of the prison hospital.
Four days later, Mr. Wang was transferred to the Nanshan Prison, while being forced to wear a black hood over his head and being handcuffed and shackled. The prison hospital there performed five physical examinations on him and forced him to take pills and receive injections. After that, he began to experience a disturbed mental state. He easily became tired and had sharp toothaches. After he was forced to go through a brain CT scan on the afternoon of October 18, 2019, he began to hear voices.
For a few days, the guards at the Nanshan Prison removed Mr. Wang’s dentures and didn’t allow him to eat. Several guards also beat and kicked him. When they finally allowed him to go to bed, they chained his feet to the bed, rendering him unable to move. His mouth felt very dry and bitter. When he was allowed to have breakfast the next morning, he couldn’t eat even an egg because the guards still didn’t return his dentures.
Mr. Wang was taken back to the Shandong Province Prison on November 19, 2019 and still held in isolation. He was beaten dozens of times, sometimes by three people and other times by more than ten people. The head guard of the 11th team kept ordering him to renounce Falun Gong. He refused to comply.
Due to his confused mental state, Mr. Wang tossed his dentures into the toilet and was unable to eat. Still the guards didn’t allow him to buy soft food, with the excuse that he hadn’t renounced Falun Gong.
Financial Persecution and Continued Harassment
On August 8, 2021, Mr. Wang was taken to the Pingyuan County Education Bureau, where accountant Liu Huiquan gave him a statement, indicating that his pension had been suspended since the day he was sentenced. The Xiajin County Court also garnished 5,000 yuan from his bank account to pay for his fine.
When Mr. Wang was released on October 9, 2021, he was ordered to report to the local appeals office once every month, until October 2026.
His local Longmen Police Station also updated his profile and the officers came to check on him once every three months. Entering 2022, the harassment became once every month.
Mr. Wang visited the education bureau and the social security and human resources bureau, seeking to reinstate his pension, but to no avail. Without any income, he relies on his children to get by.
Related reports:
70-year-old Retired Teacher Beaten in Prison
Retired Teacher Imprisoned for His Faith in Spite of His Medical Condition
Two Local Courts in Shandong Province Convict Residents for Refusing to Give Up Their Faith
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