The Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong  -- February 28, 2007

Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Content

  • Mr. Zhou Jiangang Framed with "Suicide Attempt" after Being Tortured to Disability in Qinduankou Prison, Hubei Province

  • Mr. Yu Wei from Weifang City, Shangdong Province, Repeatedly Persecuted over the Past Seven Years
  • Hunan Province Women's Prison Gives Heavy Prison Terms and Obstructs Family Visits


  • Mr. Zhou Jiangang Framed with "Suiside Attempt" after Being Tortured to Disability in Qinduankou Prison, Hubei Province

    Imprisoned for
    Clarifying the Truth

    Zhou Jiangang, who lived at Zhongshan Road, Wuchang City, started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. When the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Zhou Jiangang clarified the truth to the people. For this, the authorities arrested and persecuted him many times, and he was finally sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.

    Beaten to Disability

    Zhou Jiangang was put in the strict monitoring team at Qinduankou Prison. On April 25, 2006, Zhou Jiangang, while handcuffed and shackled, was forced to stand facing a wall. Xiao Weihua, a prison administrative section officer, Qin Lin, deputy director of the strict monitoring team, and other staff then ordered prisoners Li Min, Wang Zhonghuan and others to strike Zhou Jiangang from behind with heavy objects. This caused compound fractures on his sixth and seventh vertebra. He lay on the ground unconscious.

    Contrived Scenes to Cover Up Crimes

    To cover up their crimes, the prison guards fabricated the following scene: They put a bucket on the ground and said that Zhou Jiangang stood on the bucket to reach things on the upper level of a bunk bed and accidentally fell. The guards then discovered that the lie would be groundless, since falling accidentally could not cause vertebral compound fractures. Thus, they made up a new story, saying that because Zhou Jiangang could not endure the strict monitoring team, he jumped from the top of bunk bed himself, causing the compound fractures.

    Collusion to Kill the Victim

    After the beating on April 25, the prison officials took Zhou Jiangang to Tongji Hospital. To evade responsibility for a possible homicide, the officials concocted several schemes. They assigned Team Leader Yan of the strict monitoring team and five prison guards to watch Zhou Jiangang, who had already lost consciousness, around the clock, to prevent him from disclosing any of the persecution. According to a witness, when Zhou Jiangang was recovering in the hospital, he had dark bruises on his back and thighs from heavy blows.

    When Zhou Jiangang's condition was more stable, but his mind was still not clear, the prison lost no time and sent one female and two male prison guards to film him. They tricked him into answering questions according to their needs. The guards told Zhou Jiangang and his family that if they answered according to the prison's requirements, Zhou Jiangang would be released and receive treatment at home, and if they resisted, the consequences would be severe.

    In this way, they coerced Zhou Jiangang and his family members to sign and fingerprint a document titled, "Zhou Jiangang's Punishment for His Crime and Suicide Attempt." The guards did this to evade responsibility and to conceal the details of the assault. Furthermore, Zhou Jiangang and his family did not know that according legal statutes, those who purposely injure themselves have no right to medical treatment outside prison or at home, so the guards planned to use this trick to prevent Zhou Jiangang from receiving treatment outside the prison. They also wanted to keep Zhuo Jiangang in prison to make sure he would die, insuring that their crimes would be concealed. Thus, they were willing to murder to conceal the assault.

    The prison also demanded that Zhou Jiangang's wife not tell their child and Zhou Jiangang's aged father about his becoming disabled from the brutal beating. One of them even pressured Zhou Jiangang's wife to divorce him. Zhou Jiangang has only three living relatives. His wife, his daughter and his elderly father. (His mother died miserably from all the suffering inflicted on their family during prior years). The prison officials tried to prevent the outside world from learning how Zhou Jiangang was persecuted. The prison is currently holding Zhou Jiangang in solitary confinement, and they will not permit visits by the relatives or any medical treatment outside the prison. They fear being exposed.

    Intensifying the Persecution

    After Zhou Jiangang and his relatives signed the document, the prison guards revealed their true intent. They reduced Zhou Jiangang's food rations and transferred him to Hongshan Prison Hospital on June 1, 2006, forbidding any visits from relatives. At the prison hospital, they stopped his medical treatment. At that time, Zhou Jiangang could only take little liquid food, was barely conscious, and he could only move his eyes and mouth. He could not relieve himself. It was summer and Zhou Jiangang developed bedsores all over his body since he did not receive any care.

    Later, when overseas media exposed Zhou Jiangang's persecution, the fearful prison officials sent him back to Qinduankou Prison to further isolate him. They put him into a ward for monitoring prisoners who had shown suicidal intent, where he was watched around the clock. They also made sure that no one could get close to Zhou Jiangang, except for the prison doctor and several prisoners who were assigned to monitor him. They had written guarantees not to reveal any news concerning Zhou Jiangang.

    Zhou Jiangang has been tortured to near death, and his feet were even tied to prevent him from moving. The prisoners and guards with consciences could not stop their tears when talking about Zhou Jiangang's suffering.


    Mr. Yu Wei from Weifang City, Shangdong Province, Repeatedly Persecuted over the Past Seven Years

    On January 4, 2007, the 610 Office in Guangwen Police Station in Kuiwen District, Weifang City, Shangdong Province broke into Falun Gong practitioner Yu Wei's house under the pretense that Wei was a temporary resident. Mr. Wei's Falun Gong books, CDs, audio tapes, and other materials were illegally confiscated. After this case was exposed, policemen Gi Liang and Gu Zhiyoung from Kuiwen District Police Department illegally arrested Mr. Wei on his way home and took him to Guangwen Detention Center around noon on January 24. At 4 p.m. Wei was transfered to Weifang Detention Center.

    Mr. Yu Wei, 28 years old, has endured brutal persecution at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party officials and police in the past seven years. Wei was extorted money, illegally detained, and tortured many times. One time in a forced labor camp, police used six electric batons to shock him simultaneously.

    In February 2000, Wei went to appeal at the State Appeallet Office. The plain clothed officers forcibly sent him to the Weifang City Liaison office in Beijing and extorted one thousand yuan from him.

    In March 2000, Wei went to Beijing to appeal. The policemen at the liaison office handcuffed him to a tree in the backyard for 24 hours and did not give him any food.

    In June 2000, Wei and other practitioners walked for 13 days - over three hundred kilometers to the State Department in Beijing to appeal. Mr. Wei was illegally arrested by the police in the branch office. Two police officers detained him and beat him in turn. A large policeman used a baton to strike Wei's left wrist until the bone cracked. After that Wei could not lift his arm for two years. During this time authorities in Guangwen extorted Mr. Wei 1900 yuan.

    In early October of 2000, Mr. Wei went to Tiananmen Square to appeal. He called out "Falun Dafa is good," "Falun Dafa is righteous," and "Restore the reputation of our teacher."

    The Police rushed toward him, struck him down, and dragged him into the police car and sent Wei to Pinggu County Detention Center. Police demanded Wei reveal his name and address. When he refused to tell them they beat him and sent him to the liaison office in Beijing, where he was severely beaten. His body was covered in bruises, and it was too painful to even take a shower. When the Guangwen neighborhood security officers went to Weifang branch office to take Wei back, they extorted him another two thousand yuan.

    In late October 2000, police officer Gu Zhiyoung from Guangwen Police Station in Weifang City and Guangwen community officers illegally arrested Wei and detained him in Kuiwen Detention Center for twenty nine days. His family was extorted three thousand yuan.

    On August 14, 2001, Wei went to a job fair to find a job. He was illegally detained by police officer Gu Zhiyong. He was released the next day, but police confiscated his five hundred yuan.

    One night in October 2001, around 9 p.m., officer Gu Zhiyong led others from the Guangwen Detention Center and neighborhood security office to Yu Wei's house. His family members tried to tell the facts about Falun Gong to them, however the police wouldn't listen, and they forced open the security door. Because there was another lock that they couldn't open, police besieged Wei's house. Officers with electric batons patrolled the first floor 24 hours a day, and police cars surrounded the building. The siege lasted five days. Under such high pressure, Wei's grandmother became very sick.

    In late November 2001, on his way home, Mr. Wei was illegally detained by the plain clothed police from Guangwen Detention Center. He was brutally beaten. The persecutors broke two sticks in beating him. One of the persecutors was the head of the detention center. On the second day, police illegally sent Mr. Wei to the 2nd Group of Changle Forced Labor Camp, Weifang City. This time police confiscated Wei's cell phone, which was worth 1600 yuan.

    In the labor camp, Wei did not cooperate with the persecutors, and he went on a hunger strike to protest. Wei was force fed several times and was handcuffed for more than two months. To force him to give up his belief, the police forbade Wei to sleep and punished him with squatting for long periods of time. Wei's legs were injured, and he had difficultly walking. Nonetheless, Wei still had to perform heavy labor for over ten hours a day in the labor camp.

    In early November 2002, Changle Forced Labor Camp held a meeting to judge all Falun Gong practitioners illegally detained. When a warden slandered Master in his report, Wei suddenly stood up in the front row and shouted out: "You cannot slander Master Li."

    The wardens dragged Wei out of the meeting room, but he shouted "Falun Dafa is good."

    The guards used six electric batons to shock Wei, and ordered criminal inmate Tian Weixiang (from Qingzhou Town, Weifang City) to beat him until Wei's whole body bled. Persecutors also slapped Wei with shoes, tied him up with ropes, and sat on his back. The camp extended Wei's jail term by six months and forbade his parents to visit him for two years. Also, for a long time, camp authorities withheld the money Wei's parents sent to him.

    Since the CCP regime started to persecute Falun Gong, authorities have twice ransacked Wei's house. Authorities confiscated his Falun Gong materials, a recorder and two notebook computers worth over five thousand yuan, and extorted 8,400 yuan.

    Yu Wei's father also practices Falun Gong. The CCP authorities extorted over 24,000 yuan from him and withheld his salary for one year and ten months.


    Hunan Province Women's Prison Gives Heavy Prison Terms and Obstructs Family Visits

    Mr. Lei Yangfan and his wife Ms. Zhou Pinjun from Changsha City have suffered persecution on several occasions for practicing Falun Gong. In August 2002, Ms. Zhou (Original name: Chen Guo) was illegally arrested for distributing truth-clarification CDs related to the staged self-immolation, and then sentenced to seven years in prison. At this time, she is still imprisoned at the Hunan Province Women's Prison.

    Mr. Lei Yangfan was arrested five times. In June 2006, he was arrested by the Dongtang local police for distributing truth-clarification fliers. His hands were cuffed behind his back, and he was not allowed to go to the bathroom. He was imprisoned at Changsha 1st Detention Center, and while there he was badly beaten and verbally abused by the other prison inmates. The prison guards also routinely assaulted him by kicking him in the buttocks. He began a hunger strike to protest against this humiliation and mistreatment. He was only released after seven days of fasting, when his life was in great danger.

    Since 2006, the guards at the 6th Ward of Hunan Province Women's Prison have threatened and manipulated Ms. Zhou into divorcing her husband. Guard Deng Xing told her that the best hope for her was to be "transformed."

    Suffering from the prison's high-pressure environment, and the constant harassment by the prison guards, Ms. Zhou has gone through the "transformation," and filed a divorce lawsuit. The South China Sea Sichuan Law Office attorney Mr. Tang Zhengping has been given this document and told to act on it.

    Under the circumstances of 7 years of imprisonment and the coercion of the police, Ms. Zhou was forced to be "reformed." At the present time, a divorce lawsuit is underway in which the prison administration section empowered lawyer Mr. Tang Zhengpin of the Haichuan Law Firm in Hunan Province to handle the case. Practitioner Mr. Lei Yangfan is not willing to grant the divorce but does not want his refusal to cause his wife further injury. However, since they have not been allowed to meet normally for a long time, it is hard for Mr. Lei to engage in normal communication with his wife. During the more than 4 years of Ms. Zhou's imprisonment, Mr. Lei has gone to visit his wife almost every month, but most times he was not allowed to see her. This is additional evidence of the Hunan Women's Prison's willful deprivation of people's rights for visitation, which has caused the deteriorated relationship of the spouses and has sabotaged the harmony of this family. Even when visitation was allowed, it took place under tight surveillance. Spouses were separated by a glass window, and they had to talk using microphones. Every word they said could have been recorded. It is painful to engage in this kind of visitation.

    Ms. Zhou was compelled to undergo "transformation." She has little contact with her husband, though he continuously requests to see her. When they do meet, their innermost feelings are extremely painful, and after four years in prison there is a deep family wound.