(Minghui.org) In March 2013, nearly 50 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in the counties of Yilan, Fangzheng, Tonghe, and other places in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. The illegal arrests began on March 29 and continued for about four days.
Among those arrested were: Mo Zhikui, Fei Shuqin, Zuo Zhenqi, Lu Fengyun, Chen Yan, Sun Wenfu, Liu Fengcheng, Xu Feng, Zhang Huijuan, Li Dapeng, Duan Shuyan, Jiang Lianying, Meng Fanying and Zhang Jinku.
About 14 practitioners are still being detained. Many have suffered torture and other severe abuse. The following are details of some of their experiences.
Mr. Zuo Zhenqi
Mr. Zuo Zhenqi, 60, was arrested on March 29, 2013, in Sandaogang Town, and taken to the Yilan County No.1 Detention Center. Later, he was moved to the Harbin No.1 Detention Center. His case was heard on the afternoon of August 31, and he was sent back to the Yilan Detention Center. He was put in Cell No. 7 with a gangster called Tong who often bullied him. On one occasion he suffered severe trauma to the chest after a beating. Concerned, Mr. Zuo's family called Qi Xuefeng, head of the detention center, but Qi would not help them and told them not to call him again.
On September 1, 2013, the guards called Mr. Zuo's family and told them to send money and clothes for Mr. Zuo. The family brought 500 yuan to the center, but the guards never gave them a receipt. The guard who took the money told them that the receipt was issued to Tong, whom the center had chosen to take care of the money. Mr. Zuo was unable to spend even a penny of his own money. Tong even kept some of Mr. Zuo's clothes. Tong didn't even provide toiletries for Mr. Zuo, saying that his family members sent him too little money.
The detention center only provided two meals a day, which was nothing but a piece of steamed bread and a little soup with two or three pieces of potato in it. Tong used the extorted funds to purchase good food and then sold it to the inmates at very high prices. The income made through this "special channel" was shared with the guards.
Mr. Zuo was reduced to almost a skeleton from lack of food.
Mr. Xu Feng
Mr. Xu Feng was held in the same detention center as Mr. Zuo. The head gangsters beat him many times, forcing him to ask for money from home. His family and friends deposited several thousand yuan in his "account" at the prison, but he didn't have access to any of it. When family members called the head of the detention center to express concern, he said, "We never issue receipts. Come on, forget about the few pennies you have deposited!"
Mr. Xu was tortured in the detention center in an attempt to make him "confess" and renounce his belief in Dafa. The guards deprived him of sleep for 24 hours and burned the top of his head and bottoms of his feet with lightbulbs. During his nearly five months in the detention center, the guards encouraged inmates to beat Mr. Xu and extort money from him. They fed him soup with mud in it and only a small piece of steamed bread at each meal. He became very thin and looked 20 years older. Mr. Xu was sentenced to three years of imprisonment and was sent to Jiamusi Prison on August 21, 2013. An exam at the Jiamusi Prison clinic revealed that he had severe anemia and symptoms of a stroke due to the serious malnutrition.
Mr. Zhang Jinku
Mr. Zhang Jinku was also severely tortured. He ended up with a punctured lung as a result of a beating. He couldn't eat or drink for over 20 days and was on the brink of death. The Yilan Detention Center dared not to do any forced-feeding, afraid he might die, so they sent him to the Yilan Chinese Medicine Hospital.
Officers watched him for 24 hours at the hospital, and no relatives were allowed to see him. Mr. Zhang's family members repeatedly went to the detention center, police department, and Procuratorate to request his release. These government departments shifted responsibility back and forth and refused to release him.
On September 19, 2013, the court allowed the detention center to call Mr. Zhang's family and inform them that they could see Mr. Zhang on the morning of September 21, 2013, and that his release could possibly follow the visit. This turned out to be a lie and was only told to the family to stop them from "bothering" officials. What actually took place on September 21 was that the police transported the disabled Mr. Zhang on a stretcher from the 3rd floor of the hospital to the prison van. He was then taken to Jiamusi Prison.
Torture illustration: Combination handcuff and shackle
Mr. Mo Zhikui
Mr. Mo Zhikui was interrogated by the Yilan County Police Department and the "special judicial investigations group" composed of the vice mayor and other officials. He endured the torture of being forced to wear a combined handcuff and shackle weighing 15 kg, which kept his arms restrained behind his back. He was also ill and vomiting blood at this time. He was illegally sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Mr. Sun Wenfu
Mr. Sun Wenfu was tortured after his arrest by having the palms of his hands burned with a lighter by police officers. His arrest resulted in a five-year prison term.
Mr. Liu Fengcheng
Mr. Liu Fengcheng, who did odd jobs in Sandaogang Town, was also arrested on March 29, 2013, and taken to the Yilan Detention Center. He was tortured in an attempt to make him "confess." He sustained eye injuries during a beating in the detention center. Mr. Liu was sentenced to 5 years of in prison.
Torture Results in Death
Yilan Detention Center, as small as it is, detained 109 Falun Gong practitioners in 2000. The practitioners were brutally beaten, force-fed with concentrated salt water, exposed to extreme weather, had their arms handcuffed behind their backs, were deprived of sleep, whipped with a leather belt, and subjected to other severe abuses. Fifty-six-year-old Mr. Zhang Min was known to have been tortured to death by officer Han Yunjie at Yilan Detention Center.
Torture illustration: Back Cuff (“Carrying a sword on the back”)
