(Minghui.org) Mr. Huang Zhaojin, a 73-year-old Falun Gong practitioner, was illegally arrested in September 2013 and detained in a brainwashing center in Jianghan District for 77 days. He was deprived of sleep, starved, verbally abused, and tortured. The police tried to force him to write a statement promising to quit practicing Falun Gong.

Mr. Huang said, “Jianghan official Qu Shen instructed the police to torture me. They didn't stop even after my legs swelled up and I got dizzy. They did their utmost to torture me. I almost died.”

The following is Mr. Huang's account of what happened to him:

I was distributing Falun Gong informational materials near a vegetable market on the morning of September 27, 2013, when some community security officers grabbed me and reported me to the police.

Officers from Hanzhong Police Station took me to their interrogation room and put me in shackles for hours. They also took 500 yuan in cash from me and twisted and injured my left thumb.

Torture re-enactment: Handcuffed and shackled

Under orders from Qu Shen, head of the Jianghan District Political and Legal Affairs Committee, the police took me to a brainwashing center in the Jianghan District, where I was detained for 77 days. I was pressured to write the three statements and threatened that I would not be allowed to return home if I didn't.

Because I refused to write them, they stopped giving me water to drink or warm water to wash with. I had to shower in cold water, which caused me to cough badly.

Sun Jun from the Manchun Police Station tried to make me take medicine, but I refused. So he called in a few security guards and people from the 610 Office to pin me down on a chair. They pried my mouth open with a spoon and force-fed me unknown drugs. They injured my upper palate.

Sun Jun once put my meal on the table and asked me in front of a number of people from the 610 Office, “Tell us, do you think this food is from the Communist Party or your Master? If you say it's from your Master, we will throw it away. If you say it's from the Communist Party, then you can eat it.”

I pushed the bowl aside. Sun started to yell at me me, and he carried on for two hours (he was obviously drunk). I didn't say anything.

He asked me if I was against the Communist Party. I told him I wasn't. He then asked me why I encouraged people to quit the Party and its affiliated organizations. I told him it was to save people. He then asked me who I had saved. I said, “Whoever listens to me clarify the truth can be saved, including you and everyone present here. It's your choice. I'm only trying to help.”

Sun Jun and the others didn't give me enough to eat between October 23 and November 22. They starved me for an entire month and said, “We'll starve you to death if you don't write the statements.”

They also refused to give me drinking water. When I was thirsty and asked the “helpers” for water, Deng, (also from the 610 Office) saw it. He rushed over, poured the water out, and swore at me. Later, they deliberately turned off the water supply in my room.

One night after 10:00 p.m., Sun and Deng walked into my room. Sun was drunk again and started in on me, “This is my territory. If you don't do what I say, I can let you die...” He verbally abused me for two hours before he finally left.

I felt dizzy from lack of food and was so weak that I could hardly stand up. Nevertheless, the 610 Office staff forced me to sit on a chair and listen to slanderous recordings all day long, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. This went on for eight days in a row. I had to report to use the toilet, and Deng accused me of pretending I was ill.

A section head from the Procuratorate told the security guards to carry me from the bed and make me sit in a chair. They also tried to take my blood pressure every day. When I didn't cooperate, the deputy head of Huapolu Primary School twisted my hand.

Qu Shen also ordered the security guards to keep watch on me around the clock. The head of the security guards said to me, “They have linked our wages to you Falun Gong. If you don't 'transform,' we four won't get paid. So from now on I will make sure you don't get any sleep!”

On the evening of November 21, the head of the security team and three of his team members tried to make me write the guarantee statements again, saying I wouldn't be allowed to sleep unless I did.

The next evening, they came again to pressure me to write the statements. I refused again. Leader Guo ordered the other three to hold me down on a chair. One grabbed my left arm, another held my right hand, and put a pen in my hand. They held the pen and my thumb and index fingers together and wrote many slanderous sentences against our Master on the paper. (My finger was pierced and bled in the process.)

I became dizzy. Zhou, one of the guards, shouted, “If you still refuse to write it, we'll get someone to break your fingers with a wire-cutter.” Team leader Guo also told Zhou to take my hand and slap my own face repeatedly.