(Minghui.org)
Summary of Key Persecution Facts: Name: Zhang Qinggui (张庆贵) Gender: Male Age: Unknown Address: Fengcheng City, Liaoning Province Occupation: Driver
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 9, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Benxi Xihu Prison (本溪溪湖监狱) City: Benxi
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation by torture, brutal beatings, face slapping, brainwashing, mental torture, extended sitting on small bench, food deprivation, solitary confinement, illegal trial, illegal sentencing, imprisonment, forced sitting on board, forced slave labor.
Mr. Zhang Qinggui was a driver with the Fengcheng City Political and Legal Affairs Committee. He lost his job just because he practices Falun Dafa. He was twice arrested and sent to a brainwashing center. He was forced to become homeless for six years after he escaped from the brainwashing center. He was arrested again in 2007, and suffered in prison for six years.
Arrested and Tortured
Mr. Zhang and two other practitioners, Lang Qingsheng and Yu Chun'e from Donggang, were followed and arrested on the evening of February 9, 2007, while they were transporting Falun Dafa books, supplies, and other equipment.
They were interrogated separately by police. Mr. Zhang was taken to an office on the second floor. A young police officer questioned him, but he did not answer. An officer roughly pushed him onto the concrete floor and yelled at him, cursed at him, and pulled his ears.
Several officers took him to an office on the third floor about thirty minutes later. His hands were handcuffed behind his back with his thumbs tied together. He was pushed onto a chair, his legs were raised, and bricks were placed under his feet. When he refused to answer their questions, additional bricks were added.
Mr. Zhang was later taken downstairs to be searched. The officers found three thousand yuan in cash, which they took. Several officers then kicked and punched him, injuring Mr. Zhang's left leg. He had difficulty walking for a long time.
Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lang were transferred to Donggang Detention Center. The police feared that the beating might be reported, so they tried to get Mr. Zhang to sign a statement stating that they did not beat him, and that his injury did not result from the beating, but Mr. Zhang refused to sign.
A burley officer was summoned from the detention center to beat Mr. Zhang. Two officers from the Dadong Police Branch Department later came to interrogate him and slapped him in the face 15 or 16 times, causing dizziness and ringing in his ears. He was deaf in his left ear for a long time afterwards.
Persecution in the Labor Camp
Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lang were sent to Weiningying Forced Labor Camp in Benxi on April 12, 2007. They were initially locked in an empty room. Seven or eight guards divided into two shifts forced the practitioners to watch videos slandering Falun Gong from seven in the morning to nine in the evening, and tried to brainwash them with lies. This continued for over a month. Three collaborators were subsequently hired to torture the practitioners mentally day and night. They were forced to sit on a small bench. Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lang were separated a week later.
In mid-August, captain Liu Shaoshi told Mr. Zhang, "Leaders from the Political and Legal Affairs Committees of Dandong City and Benxi City and from the labor camp will be coming, and you should cooperate. If you do, you still have hope of getting your job back." Mr. Zhang did not comply. Liu Shaoshi became angry, and ordered the police and collaborators to take turns torturing him. He was subjected to brainwashing until midnight every day.
Officer Li told Mr. Zhang on October 9 that he had not done well, and that the captain of the brigade was very dissatisfied with him, so he was not allowed to eat lunch. That afternoon people from the Donggang Procuratorate came to verify his case and check his attitude. Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lang were locked in solitary confinement immediately aftward and tortured for three days and nights.
Sentenced to Six Years
Officers from the Dadong Police Branch Department took Mr. Lang and Mr. Zhang back on October 12 to be tried in Donggang Court on December 25. Judges Li Xintian and Liu Wenguo deceived Mr. Lang's and Mr. Zhang's families, telling them, "The trial is not today. The court will notify you of the date." The trial began immediately after the families left. In the absence of any observers or defense attorneys, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lang were each sentenced to six years in prison. Mr. Zhang asked to make a final statement, but Li Xintian did not allow him to speak.
Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lang were sent to the Dabei Prison in Shenyang in May 2008. While being admitted, Mr. Zhang was forced to sit on a board from five o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock in the evening. As result, his tailbone was injured, and his legs swelled. After one month and seven days of torture, he was assigned to Xihu Prison in Benxi. It normally takes only seven days for criminal inmates to be admitted to the prison.
Dabei Prison has a rule that inmates are not allowed to turn around. They must walk in a straight line, with their hands behind their backs. Once Mr. Zhang did not follow the rule, so guards ordered other prisoners to punch him in the head. He felt dizzy, and his mind was foggy for six months after that incident.
Mr. Zhang was transferred to the ward for newly admitted inmates on June 15, 2008. He was forced to listen to police lectures in addition to sitting on the board every day. Zhao Xuezeng, chief of the education section, lectured him until midnight. If there was no lecture, he had to work until 2:00 a.m. Mr. Zhang was transferred to the Sixth Ward on June 22. Two inmates were arranged to monitor and “transform” him in the Sixth Brigade. The police forced him to watch videos that slandered Falun Dafa, and intimidated him. Their goal was to confuse him.
Some officers reported during a prison leadership meeting that it was hard to "transform" practitioners. Cheng Zhongwei, prison law and political commissar, said, "This is the base for 'transforming' Falun Gong practitioners. Action must be taken if they refuse to be 'transformed!'" Under his direction, every ward adopted various means to persecute practitioners.
In some wards, four inmates are assigned to monitor and torture each practitioner. In others, practitioners are deprived of sleep, burned with cigarettes, stabbed with needles, forced to sit on a small bench for 12 hours at a time time, etc. Pulling ears and kicking are also common torture methods.
If practitioners still refuse to give up their beliefs, they are taken to a washroom by collaborators after 9:00 p.m., when other inmates go to bed. The practitioners are stripped naked and cold water is poured over them. The practitioners generally lose consciousness from the cold and convulse after thirty minutes of this torture. The water at the prisons is icy cold.
Mr. Zhang was assigned to clean the washroom. Due to working on the wet, cold, concrete floor for a long time, his right leg suffered from varicose veins. He could barely squat by February 2011, and he could only half-squat when using the toilet. His legs from the knee down are now black.
Mr. Zhang was released on February 9, 2013, after six years.
