(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Xu Zhibin is a 44-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner from the Jinzhou District of Dalian City, Liaoning Province. He graduated from the Dalian Technology University in 1983 and started practicing Falun Dafa in 1995. Though Mr. Xu was only in his 30's before he started to practice Falun Dafa, his body was extremely weak and all of his bodily functions had become weaker and weaker until he felt tired all the time. After he began practicing Falun Dafa, his body returned to health very quickly, and he was free of illness. His family life also became harmonious again.
On July 20, 1999, the persecution of Falun Dafa started in China. On July 24, police officer Zheng Jianguo from the Xianjin Police Station in the Jinzhou District, went to talk with Mr. Xu to persuade him to give up Falun Dafa. Mr. Xu, however, refused. Afterwards, Mr. Xu's home was searched and he was detained in the Jinzhou District Detention Center.
The Jinhaiwan Audio and Video Company in Dalian City used to produce Master Li's lecture audiotapes before the persecution started, and Mr. Xu Zhibin had often volunteered to monitor the tape quality. He only tried to keep the product price low, and he didn't take any money from the company. However, using this as an excuse, the police charged him with participating in an illegal business on August 3, 1999. Those who were involved in persecuting Mr. Xu included Yuan Hongguo from the Important Case Group of the Criminal Police Team, Jinzhou District, and others. At that time, the Dalian TV Station and the CCTV fabricated a story that Mr. Liu (the director of the company) and Xu Zhibin had received benefits of over 100,000 yuan [500 yuan is equal to the average monthly salary of an urban worker in China].
Mr. Xu's family knew that all the practitioners were volunteers who offered to help with the videotape production in their spare time, so they hired a lawyer to claim that Mr. Xu Zhibin hadn't earned any money from this work. The lawyer took the case on, but two weeks later they received a notice that said, "The Jurisdiction Department of Liaoning Province issues an order that no lawyer is allowed to accept Falun Gong cases." On December 24 of the same year, the policemen who investigated the case notified Mr. Xu's family that if they had 10,000 yuan, the police would release Mr. Xu on bail while he awaited trial. The investigators of this case said, "In fact, Xu Zhibin had nothing to do with this case, and he didn't participate in the production or sale [of the audiotapes], nor did he earn any money [from them]. He only got involved because he practiced Falun Gong." After Mr. Xu was released, his body was so weak from being abused while in detention that he gasped even while walking just a few steps. He could not even ride a bike. Mr. Xu's body didn't recover for a whole month.
On February 17, 2000, Mr. Hou from the Political and Economical Security Section of the Jinzhou District Police Station found Mr. Xu Zhibin and wanted to talk. That same day, Mr. Xu was sent to the Jinzhou District Detention Center for criminal detention. The reason was that he had attended an experience sharing conference on February 9, 2000. After Mr. Xu's family continually asked for his release, Mr. Xu was released on September 29, 2000. He had scabies all over his body.
On January 6, 2001, Mr. Xu's family received a notice from Yuan Hongguo of the Criminal Police Team to ask them to go there and collect their deposit for bailing out Mr. Xu. He emphasized that Mr. Xu Zhibin had to go there and personally sign for the money. Mr. Xu's wife (also a Dafa practitioner) did not feel comfortable about this so she went to the criminal police team together with Mr. Xu. After they arrived, it turned out to be a trap. At that time, truth-clarifying materials about Falun Dafa had appeared everywhere in the Jinzhou District, and the police suspected that these materials were made by Mr. Xu Zhibin. The police separated the couple and forcefully took away the house keys from Mrs. Xu. Afterwards they used a search order without any official stamp and they held a video camera while going to search the homes of Mr. Xu Zhibin, as well as the homes of his mother and mother-in-law. The police intimidated Mr. Xu's family members and made a mess wherever they went. Everything in Mr. Xu Zhibin's home related to Falun Gong was ransacked and they only found a small amount of truth-clarification materials. When the policemen went back to the police station, they started to use torture methods in an attempt to make Mrs. Xu reveal the sources of her truth-clarification materials. On the second day, they hung her up for more interrogation but could not achieve their purpose, so they released her that evening. After Mrs. Xu went home, she could not carry anything with her hands and the wounds from the handcuffs didn't disappear for four and a half months.
That same day, they sent Mr. Xu Zhibin to the Jinzhou District Detention Center for criminal detention. Ten days later, Mr. Xu Zhibin was secretly transferred to the Wafangdian Detention Center. In the Wafangdian Detention Center, the Jinzhou District police interrogated Mr. Xu and forced him to sit on the cold cement ground for over two hours, wearing only a T-shirt and shorts. It was wintertime and Mr. Xu was frozen to the point that he was breathless. On May 23, 2001, Mr. Xu Zhibin was released. This time, Mr. Xu's high-quality belt, tie, glasses, clothes and briefcase were missing from the Criminal Police Team of the Jinzhou District Police Station. Those who participated in this phase of the persecution included Sun Shixue, Wang Jian, as well as others.
In April of 2002, the Jinzhou Police Station conducted a large-scale search of Dafa practitioners. Policemen from the Xianjin Police Station in the Jinzhou District broke into Mr. Xu Zhibin's home (without following legal procedures) to search his home and arrest him; however, Mr. Xu was not at home at that time. On April 27, Mr. Xu was arrested by the Longwang Police Station of the Jinzhou District as he went to another practitioner's home. In the police station, one of the torture means employed by the police was to "hang buckets:" they handcuffed Mr. Xu and hung him up with a rope, then hung two buckets with more than 75 pounds of water around his neck. At that time, his two hands, shoulders and neck all felt like they were being broken and his whole body felt like it was being torn apart.
During this torture, several policemen also beat Mr. Xu's arms, face and head and used other cruel means to torture him for the whole night. At that time, the head of the "610 Office,"(1) Gao Mingxi, said, "Beat him and break his arms and legs. If he dies, throw him into the sea and claim that he committed suicide." The policemen tried to force Mr. Xu to tell them the situation of fellow practitioners, but Mr. Xu refused. On the second day, the policemen sent Mr. Xu to the Jinzhou Detention Center for criminal detention. Even those policemen who knew Mr. Xu before could not recognize him because his face was completely deformed from the beating. Mr. Xu could not move his whole body and his arms and hands had no feeling. The other inmates in the cell needed to look after him. According to the police, no one else had been able to endure such cruel torture for such a long time.
Mr. Xu went on a hunger strike and was released after 2 months. When he was released, Mr. Xu's weight was only 77 or 88 pounds though he was 5 foot 9 inches tall. He was very weak and his family had to carry him. Mr. Xu's cellular phone, 2,200 yuan in cash and other personal belongings that he carried with him had been confiscated without any legal procedure. Mr. Xu's family went to the police station several times to ask for those personal belongings, but the police always gave them vague answers. The persecutors this time included Xu Jiake of the Longwang Police Station, Jinzhou District.
On September 12, 2002, Zhao Kan, the deputy director of the Guangming Police Station, Jinzhou District, led several policemen and suddenly broke into the home of Mr. Xu's mother where Mr. Xu was staying. They said they wanted to take Mr. Xu Zhibin to the police station for a talk, but Mr. Xu refused to go. The policemen forcibly carried him away and threw him into the police car. Mr. Xu was only wearing a T-shirt and shorts and didn't even have slippers on. He was sent to the Jinzhou District Detention Center that same day. Not until he arrived at the detention center, did he learn that he had been illegally sentenced to 3 years of forced labor. He started to go on a hunger strike to protest. On September 18, Mr. Xu was sent to the Dalian Forced Labor Camp. However, because he didn't pass the physical check-up, the labor camp refused to accept him. Having no other choice, Zhao Kan had to send Mr. Xu back home and Mr. Xu's family carried him home again. When Mr. Xu's family questioned Zhao Kan, Zhao even tried to intimidate his family saying, "If you don't comply with us, we may arrest you also." After Mr. Xu arrived home, his family found that his legs were covered with bruises. The reason was that Mr. Xu had been dragged on the ground the whole way from the police station to the detention center.
On September 28, 2002, Mr. Xu Zhibin was arrested at the Malanzi truth-clarification materials production site in Dalian City, by the National Security Team of Shahekou District, Dalian. The policeman who persecuted Mr. Xu this time was Tang Shiwei. On November 6, Mr. Xu's family received a notice and learned that Mr. Xu was detained at the Dalian Detention Center, but they didn't know which agency had approved the arrest and there was no signature on the arrest order. The whole of October, his family searched many places for Mr. Xu but could not find him. In March of 2003, it was learned that Mr. Xu Zhibin was secretly sentenced to 14 years in prison. Mr. Xu's mother and mother-in-law, both more than 70 years old, went to the Procurator Institute of Dalian City and the Shahekou District Procurator Institute and Court to find out more news. They spent a whole day visiting these offices and still could not get any news at all. The staff all said that they didn't know anything about Mr. Xu's case. On the second day, they went to the Shahekou District National Security Team and found out that the Ganjingzi Court in Dalian City had sentenced Mr. Xu. So Mr. Xu's family members went to the court and were told that it was a criminal court -- the Fourth Court -- that had sentenced Mr. Xu. They called the presiding judge of the Fourth Court, a Ms. Hu.
The following is an account of the conversation between Mr. Xu's family and the presiding judge:
Family: "Why didn't the court notify the family before the trial?"
Judge: "Xu Zhibin is an adult and thus we don't need to inform the family."
Family: "Xu Zhibin's health was not very good."
Judge: "We could tell that at the trial, but it was not bad." (Author's note: It was learned later that at the trial Mr. Xu had to be carried into the courtroom.)
Family: "Why was he sentenced to 14 years in prison?"
Judge: "Some issues are rules and we can not tell you." (Author's note: In fact all those things that they dare not make public are false and imposed. There is a saying, "A reason can always be found when there is a wish to incriminate.")
Family: "We want to make an appeal."
Judge: "Other people have made an appeal but he didn't." (Author's note: It was learned later that Mr. Xu's appeal request was confiscated by the Dalian Detention Center.)
At present, Mr. Xu Zhibin is detained in the Criminal Section of Wafangdian Prison (this section is specifically used to detain Dafa practitioners). From the trial, to the Wafangdian Prison, the whole procedure was done secretly. Mr. Xu's family could not find out the whereabouts of Mr. Xu Zhibin until they searched many places. Now Mr. Xu has been detained for over one year, but his family still hasn't received any written notice of the sentence, nor do they know why he was sentenced to 14 years.
In the past four and half years, Mr. Xu was detained many times, and he lost his job. Mrs. Xu has been laid off and is working in a private company. She is living in poverty with their child who is in middle school now. However, whenever it is a so-called "sensitive day" [around national holidays or politically sensitive days], Wang from Xianjin Street , Jinzhou District where Mr. Xu's family is located, tries all means to call Mr. Xu's family to interfere with them and makes his family feel worried all the time and uncomfortable whenever they see a policeman. But Mr. Xu's family all know that Mr. Xu is a good person. They know that he has been wronged and that the truth will be revealed sooner or later. Mr. Xu's family members all look forward to the arrival of that day.
Related persons and phone numbers:
Guangming Police Station of Jinzhou District: 86-411-7675244; Deputy Director, Zhao Kan.
Criminal Police Team, Jinzhou District Police Station: Sun Shixue, Wang Jian, and others.
Xianjin Police Station, Jinzhou District: 86-411-7703317
Law and Regulation Section of the Jinzhou District Police Station: 86-411-7837901; (Section Chief Zhang is responsible for the sentence to forced-labor.)
National Security Team of Shahekou District Police Station, Dalian City: 86-411-3794213,86-411-3792451 (Tang Shiwei)
Criminal Court of Ganjingzi District Court, Dalian City: 86-411-6600626 (forward to Fourth Court)
Team Leaders of the Criminal Police Section: Liu, Li and Lu
Jinzhou District "610 Office": Gao Mingxi
(1) The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.