(Minghui.org)

Summary of Key Persecution Facts:

Name: Gong Zaiqiang (宫再强)
Gender: Male
Age: about 48
Address: Nanhua Village, Xinhua Town, Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province (黑龙江鹤岗市新华镇南华村)
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 28, 2002
Most recent place of detention: Hegang City Forced Labor Camp (鹤岗劳教所)
City: Hegang
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labor, brutal beatings, sleep deprivation, various forms of torture

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Gong Zaiqiang, 48, has been persecuted for 14 years for his peaceful spiritual belief. He has been arrested multiple times and brutally tortured in a forced labor camp. Below is a summary of the persecution he has suffered.

Arrested and Tortured in Detention

Near the end of 1999, Mr. Gong and several other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. They were illegally arrested, taken to the Heilongjiang Province Office in Beijing, and later transferred to the Hegang City Detention Center. They were detained with nine other practitioners, including Jiang Yunjing, Li Xiangdong and Gong Zaili, in Cell No. 1.

Zhang Chunqing, deputy director of the Hegang City Police Department, directly participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. He ordered the most wicked male prisoners to torture practitioners every day, including forcing them to squat and stand on their toes without leaning against the wall for long periods of time. If their feet touched the ground, the prisoners would beat them relentlessly.

Practitioner Mr. Jiang Yunjing was beaten so severely that he couldn't straighten his back.

Torture re-enactment: Violent beating

Sentenced to Slave Labor

In early 2000, Mr. Gong was sentenced to a year of forced labor and sent to the Hegang City Forced Labor Camp, along with 14 other practitioners, including Cheng Shouxiang, Zhou Zhaoxiang, Zhou Jiafu, Yu Shuxiang, Sun Wenli, Jiang Yunjing, Zhang Yonghua, Li Xiangdong, Gong Guidong, Zhao Fenghui, Li Qingwen, Sun Shihong, Cong Zhiwu, and Zhou (first name unknown). They were the first group of practitioners to be persecuted in this forced labor camp.

In order to force practitioners to give up their faith, the guards in the labor camp, as well as prisoners instigated by the guards, tortured them with brutal means.

One day, three prisoners took turns beating practitioners with rectangular pieces of wood. Some practitioners were dragged to the toilet and beaten fiercely.

Mr. Gong was seriously wounded and had bruises all over his body.

After Mr. Gong was released, Xinhua Town Police Station personnel continued to harass him at home. They also ordered the head of the village to monitor him.

Detained and Tortured Again

In April 2002, Mr. Zhai went to Inner Mongolia to buy sheep. Liu Zhixiang, director of the Xinhua Town Political and Legal Affairs Committee, then ordered police to go to Inner Mongolia to arrest him. He gave up the plan after learning that Mr. Gong was already on his way back home.

Later, someone reported Mr. Gong for practicing Falun Gong. He was arrested by officers from the Xinhua Town Police Station on April 28, 2002.

Mr. Gong was detained in the Hegang No. 2 Detention Center, where guards and prisoners beat and cursed him day and night.

They also deprived him of sleep 24 hours a day and forced him to sit on the cement floor for 15 days. As soon as he closed his eyes, the prisoners would punch him in the face and head. The hitting injured his ear, which became so painful that it was hard to breathe.

Mr. Gang was also tortured for several hours by a method called “Flying the Airplane.”

Torture demo: “Flying the Airplane”

One of the guards kicked Mr. Gong over 20 times with his leather shoes, causing festering sores on his mouth.

Imprisoned in a Forced Labor Camp Again

Later, Mr. Gong was sent to the Hegang Forced Labor Camp again, where he was detained for another three years.

He was detained and tortured in the Third Brigade of the labor camp. Guards and prisoners pinched him with needles, hit him with wooden sticks, and punched and kicked him violently.

One day, Mr. Gong was beaten so severely that his ribs were broken. He was in so much pain that he could barely breathe.

Under the instigation of the guards, prisoners invented a torture technique called “Forcibly Splitting One's Legs 180 Degrees.”

Torture re-enactment: “Forcibly Spitting One's Legs 180 Degrees”

Mr. Gong's legs were split into a straight line. He experienced piercing pain and felt like his legs were broken. One of the prisoners then sat on his legs to cause more pain. The suffering was beyond description.