(Minghui.org) The Feixiang District Court of Handan City, Hebei Province illegally sentenced six Handan residents to prison and fined them on December 29, 2016, for distributing fliers about the persecution of Falun Gong. Among them, retired policeman Mr. Li Congchun, 71, was given a five-year prison term and fined 5,000 yuan.
Mr. Li was taken to Jidong No. 5 Prison, Hebei Province, on March 1, 2017. Prison officials did not inform his family of his whereabouts for three months.
Practitioner Mr. Shen Youliang called his family from Jidong Prison. Mr. Shen was sentenced at the same time as Mr. Li, so Mr. Li’s family presumed that the two men would be in the same prison.
Mr. Li Xiaoqiang, Mr. Li’s son, went to Jidong Prison to see his father in May, but was not given visiting rights or phone call privileges and guards refused to pass money to his father.
A Falun Gong practitioner released from Jidong Prison provided information on the torture of practitioners by guards and prisoners.
Guards ordered prisoners and collaborators to torture and brainwash this practitioner and other practitioners. His weight fell from about 154 pounds to 66 pounds while in the prison.
Six prisoners would monitor one practitioner to earn points for early release. They brutally beat practitioners into unconsciousness. Before the practitioner was revived, their blood pressure was measured. If the blood pressure was high, they force-fed unknown drugs. Often, the practitioner could not breathe and passed out as a result of the drugs.
Sometimes, the prisoners took a handful of pills, showed them to the practitioner, ground them into powder, and mixed them with cooked rice. Any practitioner who refused to eat the concoction would be beaten. The drug caused dizziness, stomach pain, vomiting, and loss of consciousness.
Jidong Prison, located southeast of Tanshan City, has been actively persecuting Falun Gong practitioners since the persecution began in 1999. Many practitioners became severely ill, were physically disfigured, or died from the inhuman treatment they received.
Mr. Dong Hanjie, a senior engineer from the Zhuozhou Mining Bureau, Hebei Province, died on October 10, 2015 in Jidong Prison.