(Clearwisdom.net) On September 28, the three Falun Gong practitioners who were detained at Changsha City “Legal Education Training Center” (euphemism for “brainwashing center”), Ms. Zhou Yuxi, Mr. Li Zhigang and Mr. Huang Yonghui, regained their freedom. Ms. Zhou and Mr. Li were locked up for 40 days while Mr. Huang was imprisoned for about 20 days.

Ms. Zhou Yuxi, 31, is a former teacher in the kindergarten affiliated with the Hunan Province Space Bureau. Mr. Li Zhigang, 42, was an assistant researcher at the Computer Institute of the National University of Defense Technology. Mr. Huang Yonghui is in his 40s and lives in the Tianxin District. They have been persecuted repeatedly for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Zhou and Mr. Li were fired from their jobs.

The Changsha City Legal Education Training Center is actually a brainwashing center used to persecute practitioners. It is situated in Zhongling Village, Laodaohe Town, Kaifu District, Changsha City. It looks like a holiday resort from the outside but the mesh wire on the walls of the building, closed iron gates during the day, and the iron bars on the windows clearly indicate that this place is not a resort. The building used to be a nursing home and was purchased by the Hunan Province 610 Office in 2002 for an exorbitant price. In November of that year, the nursing home was turned into the training center.

The securely-locked gate at the entrance to the third level

Practitioners are cut off from all contact with the outside world by the high walls

Road signs to the Laodaohe brainwashing center

The Legal Education Training Center is under the jurisdiction of the Changsha City 610 Office and the Legal and Political Committee. It is headed by Wu Zhibin, who is also the deputy secretary of the legal and political committee. The deputy head of the 610 Office, Wu Kaiming, carries out specific matters. The center has several assistants, including Yang Lu and Lei Songping. In the past eight years, hundreds of practitioners from all over Hunan Province have been detained at this center. Besides losing their personal freedom, these practitioners were subjected to brainwashing as well as other physical and mental torture to try to force them to give up their belief.

Every practitioner is imprisoned in a room with a toilet on the third level. Each room is about 130 square feet. Practitioners are closely monitored 24 hours a day by either someone well paid or directed by the 610 Office. Even the three meals a day are eaten in the room and brought in by these watchdogs.

Practitioners are relentlessly threatened and brainwashed. The main brainwashing tactics employed are: forcing them to watch programs slandering Falun Gong and its founder; forcing them to study books defaming Falun Gong and its founder as well as rules established by the communist regime; and threatening to send those who refuse to be “transformed” to forced labor camps or prison. These tactics are used to pressure practitioners to write statements renouncing their belief and a guarantee that they will no longer practice Falun Gong.

Nearly every practitioner taken to the brainwashing center is prohibited from any contact with the outside world. They are not allowed to make phone calls or write letters. Except for a small number of family members brought in to try to persuade practitioners to give up the practice, most of the practitioners are denied visits from their family. During his 40 days of detention, Mr. Li Zhigang's family was not allowed to visit him at all. On the other hand, Ms. Zhou's husband, Zhang Yonglin, who is a senior political officer at the Hunan Branch Office of a state owned bank, was allowed to go in and out of the brainwashing center freely because he was against his wife practicing Falun Gong.

Staff in the center threaten and beat practitioners if the brainwashing methods fail. Jiang Shanglian from Ningxiang County was beaten while detained at the brainwashing center. Ren Liyun, a practitioner from Changsha City and a retired worker from the Shuguang Group companies, also witnessed staff members in the center beating practitioners during his detention.

Practitioners are threatened with: “You have three choices: give up your belief, end up in a mental institution, or be sent to a forced labor camp.” Ms. Tang Min, a practitioner from Changsha City, was sent to Hunan Province Mental Institution for resisting the persecution. She was injected with drugs used to treat mental patients. Zhang Junjie, Li Zhihong, Lei Yangfan, and many Changsha practitioners were subsequently transferred to Baimalong Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou or Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp in Hunan Province for further persecution.

After being detained 12 days in the brainwashing center, on September 28, these three practitioners were escorted home by officers from the 610 Offices in their respective districts.

Contact information for the perpetrators:
Wu Zhibin, head of Changsha City 610 Office: +86-731-88667548 (Office), +86-731-85070065 (Home), +86-13307310607 (Cell)
Wu Kaiming, deputy head: +86-731-88667549 (Office), +86-731-85133270 (Home), +86-13319578855, +86-13308408731 (Cell)
Changsha City Legal Education Training Center: +86-731-86675725
Yang Lu, deputy supervisor: +86-13975805222
Jiang Heping, assistant supervisor of Hunan Province 610 Office cum vice head of the provincial police division: +86-731-82215011 (610 Office), +86-731-84597005 (Police Department Office), +86-13907318701

(For more perpetrators' contact information, please refer to the original Chinese article)