Written on August 1, 2003

When Dafa disciples are kidnapped and taken to the Zhengding County Detention Center in Hebei Province, they are searched by the cell heads who take away all their money and valuable belongings and then insult and torment them almost everyday. Police incite cell heads to monitor Dafa disciples as "notorious figures," and don't allow practitioners to write anything. If practitioners want to write letters, they have to ask the cell heads for permission. Practitioners are only allowed to write letters to their families to ask for money, and cell heads blackmail practitioners for their money, which they use to get food and drink. Policemen at the detention center regularly make fun of, humiliate, insult and curse Dafa disciples. It is very common for police to incite cell heads to brutally torture Dafa disciples, extort their money and clothes and take away their food.

In December 2001, when Dafa disciple Wei Zhanjun read Dafa articles, the cell head reported him to the guards. Wei Zhanjun firmly refused to disclose the source of the materials, so the policemen instigated 7-8 prisoners to handcuff Mr. Wei's two hands behind his back. All the prisoners in his cell then beat and kicked Mr. Wei, and then tortured him, attaching something like a horse's halter to him and tying him up.

Later, a prisoner falsely accused Dafa disciple Mr. Song Jianmin of passing around Dafa materials. 4-5 policemen came and handcuffed Mr. Song with his back to an iron pole, and left him for a day. It was extremely cold at the time and Mr. Song was not allowed to eat any food for the whole day. In the evening, policemen put Mr. Song in a cell that housed prisoners who gave the most brutal and vicious beatings, and Mr. Song was also forced to wear punishment instruments for one more week.

In December 2001, Dafa disciple Wei Zhanjun went on a hunger strike for 9 days and didn't eat or drink anything. The detention center guards force-fed him with salty water and gruel and he was tortured until he was at his last gasp. Police also gathered a large pile of shackles and announced to all prisoners: "If he continues to refuse to eat, all of you will be put in shackles."

In the female cells of the Zhengding Detention center, Dafa disciples Cao Zhuo and Liu Shu'e were handcuffed behind their backs for 49 days. It was very hot at that time, and they could not wash their clothes or take baths, nor could they take care of their own lives for the entire 49 days.

During the Spring Festival of 2002, one male Dafa disciple in his thirties from another area refused to tell police his name. When he was sent to the detention center, policemen from the public security bureau beat him so fiercely that his face became dark blue and his body kept shaking. After he was detained in a cell, he persevered with a hunger strike in protest. For several days, he was chained up with handcuffs and shackles that were usually reserved for criminals on death row. This practitioner was tortured until he was critically ill, unable to speak but only to gasp. Eight days later, criminals carried him into the yard and tortured him on the icy ground with only one layer of cardboard below his body. The guards phoned the county hospital to send a car to pick him up for emergency treatment, but the county hospital didn't send any car. The female doctor Yang on duty at the detention center even kicked him violently. In the end, this Dafa disciple was tortured until he was at his last gasp and then secretly released.

Phone numbers of Zhengding Detention Center: 86-311-8022553, 86-311-8016782, 86-311-8018057.