(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioners Liu Hongtu, Ms. Lu Mei, Ms. Tong Yuxia, Sun Yuemin, Zhu Hui, Liang Bin, Cheng Peifeng, Zhou Shuhai, and Zhou Shuzhang were illegally arrested and locked up in the Tieli City No. 1 Detention Center by members of the 610 Office and the police department between September 26 and October 29, 2005. Another Dafa practitioner, Chai Shusen from Tieli City, was arrested in early November 2005. Several days later, he was sentenced to forced labor and sent to the Suihua Forced Labor Camp to be persecuted.
The ten practitioners were sentenced at the Tieli City Court in February 2006. The court rejected the practitioners’ appeals and upheld the original sentences. Zhou Shuzhang, Zhou Shuhai, Liu Hongtu and Sun Yuemin were sent to the Group Training Division of Hulan Prison to be persecuted on June 1, 2006. They were transferred to Daqing Prison on June 30. Ms. Lu Mei was sent to Harbin Women’s Prison on June 1. The other five practitioners remained locked up in Tieli City Detention Center due to different reasons.
Mr. Zhou Shuzhang is 42 years old. He was a laid-off worker from the lumberyard of the Tieli Forestry Bureau. After he was arrested on October 29, 2005, he was subjected to "angled hanging" (while seated, a practitioner’s forearms are tied together behind the back of a chair, the practitioner’s legs are stretched out and tied up, while guards kick the practitioner), "tying the ropes" and other tortures.
Mr. Liu Hongtu, 38 years old, was a taxi driver. He was arrested on September 26, 2005. He was subjected to "angled hanging" and "tying the ropes." He underwent a hunger strike to protest the persecution but was further tortured with brutal force-feeding.
Mr. Zhou Shuhai, 34 years old, was formerly a researcher from the Yichun City Government Research Center. He was arrested on October 29, 2005 and suffered the "angled hanging" and "tying the ropes" tortures.
Mr. Sun Yuemin, 31 years old, was a worker from a wood products factory in Tieli. He was arrested from his home on October 1, 2005. He suffered from "angled hanging," "tying the ropes" and other forms of torture. In the detention center, upon refusing to wear the prison uniform, he was slapped by a police officer.
These four practitioners were sent to the Group Training Division of Hulan Prison on June 1, 2006. On June 4, the Criminal Team head Wang Dengming (a criminal inmate) asked if Liu Hongtu had written the so-called "Four Statements" (similar to the three statements). Mr. Liu answered, "No." Wang then verbally abused him and punched him in the face. Then another team head Zheng Taiping (also a criminal) ordered Zhou Shuzhang to get out of the line, and asked him the same question. When Mr. Zhou answered the same way as Mr. Liu did, Zheng struck him in the back of the neck several times. Zheng then threatened Mr. Zhou to "think it over."
On the evening of June 4, when the prisoners were sitting on the cement floor in the cell, Wang Dengming asked Zhou Shuhai if he had written the "Four Statements" yet. Mr. Zhou said no. Wang then started to physically abuse him and used the "little white dragon" (a white, hard plastic tube) and lashed him on the back three times. Then he ordered Liu Hongtu to go out of the cell and lashed him with the plastic tube about seven times. Wang threatened, "This is just the start. If you don’t write the statements, I will treat you this way every day." Under such huge physical and mental pressure, Liu Hongtu wrote the "Four Statement" against his will.
Starting on June 5, Zheng Taiping forced Zhou Shuzhang and Zhou Shuhai to stand facing the wall all the time except during meal times and when they had to go to the bathroom. He arranged criminals to monitor them closely. They were prohibited from talking and moving and were often forced to stand until 11:00 p.m. He also threatened to make them stand the whole night, with the intention of breaking them down mentally. Their forced standing during the night ended 15 days later with the help of some inmates who had a sense of justice.
When Zhou Shuzhang and Zhou Shuhai were standing facing the wall in the cell on the evening of June 5, Zheng Taiping called Zhou Shuhai to his bed. He first told him that he needed points to be commuted and that if Mr. Zhou didn’t give up Dafa, his points would lost. He also said, "I don’t care if your Falun Gong is good or bad. We are just fooling the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). We only need the ‘Four Statements’ to muddle through, and you will also get your sentence commuted. Otherwise, you have to suffer every day. There is no rancor between us, and I don’t want to treat you this way. Isn’t everything arranged by the officers?" He saw that Mr. Zhou remained unmoved, so he said, "Can you resist the criminals? You cannot. The criminals have all kinds of means to torture you to death." He repeated both these hard and soft tactics. After a while, criminal inmate Guo Guangzhi (from Jiamusi) and Xiaopangzi (from Yichun) physically abused Mr. Zhou, saying that he failed to appreciate their kindness. They punched him in the stomach. He almost couldn’t endure the pain and squatted down with his hands covering the stomach. Xiaopangzi dragged him up and said, "You are pretending." He also punched him in the stomach and pushed him down to the ground. At that time, Mr. Zhou’s head hit the ground and started to bleed at the eyebrow. Xiaopangzi tried to twist Mr. Zhou's arms back and tightly held both of his hands together. Then Zheng came over to stop Xiaopangzi and pull him up. Blood splattered on his clothes and left many bloodstains. The three inmates wiped the blood off Mr. Zhou's face and applied some iodine on his wound. Xiaopangzi said, "If I wasn’t leaving this cell and being transferred tomorrow, I would certainly fix him." Zheng Taiping also said to Mr. Zhou, "Go back and think it over. Give me an answer tomorrow." They then allowed him to sleep.
When Mr. Zhou got up on the morning of June 6, his face was covered with blood. Many criminals saw it. When he went to wash his face, the No. 6 cell head Wang Dengming stopped him and ordered him to go back to the cell. Xiaopangzi and other criminals again wiped the blood from his face with napkins in order to hide what happened. The guards of the Group Training Division simply ignored the blood and wounds on Mr. Zhou.
Zheng Taiping often punched and slapped the two practitioners on the neck and the back. He threatened them, "See how I will fix you tomorrow. I will make you stand the whole night. I will make you die from bleeding from seven apertures," and so on. During this period, the workshop head Guo Tao (a criminal inmate from Jiamusi) participated in the attempted brainwashing of the two practitioners. He mainly induced and threatened them. This kind of persecution lasted 15 days. Later on, the practitioners were mainly punished with forced standing during the daytime and were closely monitored. This lasted until June 26. The long-term standing caused Mr. Zhou Shuhai severe back pain. There was a scar about 1.5 cm long on his left eyebrow.
The authorities from the Hulan Prison are still continuing their persecution of Dafa practitioners. Although the guards from the Group Training Division didn’t seem to directly participate in the torture of practitioners, they instructed the criminal inmates to brainwash the four practitioners and promised them incentives to do so. Furthermore, three guards called Mr. Zhou Shuzhang and Zhou Shuhai in to have talks separately. They tried to get the practitioners to renounce Falun Gong, but failed.