A 70-year-old Tells in his Own Words of Being Detained for Seven Months and Tortured to Near-Death

Shi Zhimin is a retired office employee of the Langfang County Fabric Factory in Hebei Province. He is 70 years old. In 1995, he had serious heart problems and was diagnosed as critically ill. After he started practising Falun Dafa, his diseases disappeared without medical treatment. After the persecution began, he publicly spoke the truth about Falun Dafa. He has been arrested many times, detained, and sent to forced labour camps. His home was ransacked. Finally, he was tortured to the brink of death and then sent back home. When he had slightly recovered, he had to leave home and wander about to avoid further persecution.

In December 2004, Shi Zhimin was telling people about the goodness of Falun Dafa and explaining that practitioners are innocent people being wrongfully persecuted in his hometown in Meng County, Henan Province. He was arrested by the local police and detained at the Meng County Custody Centre. He went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was handcuffed continuously. He was once tied up on the "dead man's bed," (1) unable to move, and tortured for three days. He quickly lost weight, and became skin and bones, unable to walk and prone to losing consciousness. He could barely talk, and his bottom oozed out pus.

By the end of May 2005, people from the Meng County Court went to the Meng County Custody Centre and said to Shi Zhimin, who was too weak to say a word, "The trial of your case has started. Take a look at these documents." They then sentenced him to four years in prison. Around June 20th Shi Zhimin was sent to Zhengzhou Prison. He weighed only 50 pounds at that time. Because he was about to die, they sent him to the hospital.

Afraid of being held responsible should Shi Zhimin die, both the prison and the custody centre wanted to alleviate their responsibility for him. On the night of July 6th police from Meng County Custody Centre sent Shi Zhimin to the Langfang Police Department in Hebei Province. The police department refused to take him in, so he was finally sent back home. His family scolded the police for their maltreatment of Shi Zhimin. The police from Henan Province left in a hurry.

Following is the account given by Shi Zhimin about what he experienced over the seven month period.

On December 11th 2004, I went back to my hometown, Nanzhuangbei Village in Henan Province, to tell people the truth about Falun Dafa and expose the persecution. I was "arrested" by local people. Later the police came. Because I refused to be arrested, I was held down to the ground. They threw sand in my eyes so that I couldn't open them and handcuffed, kicked and punched me. They then dragged me to the police van while I struggled to get away. They pulled me back again and again. In the van, they took turns grabbing things from my pockets, and at the same time beating me. They also kicked me in the eyes and put something in my eyes. One of the policemen complained, "What? He only has a few dozen yuan (2) in his pockets!" Another policeman took my phone card and said, "Why didn't he have a mobile phone? Well, the card is still something."

They then drove me to Meng County Custody Centre. They literally carried me to the cell. (Later, I learned from people in the custody centre that it was the Meng County State Security Squad that had arrested me). Since I hadn't violated any laws, I went on a hunger strike for two months to protest the illegal detention. During that time, they kept force-feeding me. Before the force-feeding, they handcuffed me. Then they inserted a tube into my nostril. After the force-feeding, I remained handcuffed with the tube in my nostril--at the beginning for up to two or three days, then four or five days, before it was removed. I couldn't move, sleep, or use the toilet. I could only ask the inmates to help me use the toilet. It was not until February 8th 2005, that I started to take a little food. After the Chinese New Year, I started another hunger strike and continued until mid-May.

One day, I was tied spread-eagle to the "dead man's bed," with my four limbs handcuffed tightly, and with a tube in my nostril. I couldn't move at all. I was left like that for three days. If I moved even a little bit, they would accuse me of wanting to practise Falun Gong and they would tighten the handcuffs. On May 15th a policeman whose last name is Zhang, gave orders to force-feed me for ten days without taking the tube out or removing the handcuffs. In the past, they force-fed me once or twice every day, each time with one basin of substance. But now he ordered the force-feeding to be three or four times a day, each time with much more substance.

On the 19th, the head of the cell saw that I wanted to move, so he attempted to handcuff me tighter. At that time, he noticed that there was a hard mass in my belly, so they called for the doctor. The doctor looked at me from a place six metres above and said that both my feet were swollen. He said I was about to die. So they removed the tube from my nostril and released the handcuffs from my hands and feet. Only then did they find that there was pus on my bottom, and that it was very swollen.

I was sent to the hospital. At that time, it had been a long time since I was able to discharge excrement or urinate easily. I was so weak I couldn't say a word. I sometimes slipped into a coma. The doctors used a catheter to remove the urine from my body. I heard them say that I filled four big basins of urine each day. They replaced the catheter every week. They also gave me IV infusions. I was still slipping into a coma sometimes. When I woke up, I forced myself to have some rice porridge, only to find it hard to swallow. Each time I could only swallow three to five spoonfuls of porridge. After four days in the hospital, I improved slightly. They then sent me back to the custody centre.

On May 31st they said that they would put me on trial. Policemen ordered the inmates to put clothes on me and carry me to the courtyard. They put me on the ground in the rain for 20 minutes. Then they carried me into a room about 12 square metres in size. A man presumably from the court said, "We are now starting the trial. Take a look at these documents."

Soaking wet from the rain, I was too cold to say a word, nor could I think clearly. I refused it. The man from the court then read me the sentence and said that I was sentenced to four years in prison. They asked me to sign the paper but I refused. I couldn't say a word.

Later the man from the court said to the police officers and the inmates who carried me in, "You have all seen his situation today. You can sign for him. "I saw two inmates and the policeman whose last name is Zhang sign the paper. Five minutes later, I was carried back to the cell by the two inmates. I felt my mind was clearer now. The inmates told me that the open trial had concluded. In fact, it was an illegal sentence. I won't recognise it.

About 20 days later, they saw that I was improving slightly, so they were eager to send me to a prison. They said if Zhengzhou Prison refused to take me, they would make something up, like needing to do something or buy something, and just leave me there. They said they would leave me at the prison for prison management to deal with.

On June 20th they sent me to Zhengzhou Prison. When the doctors in the prison did a physical exam, they found that I weighed only 50 pounds. They also noticed the pus on my bottom. They refused to accept me, because they thought I was dying. The guards in the prison asked the inmates to carry me to the meadow in the yard to wait for people from the custody centre. But nobody from the custody centre came. So they dragged me back to the hospital again. The doctors gave me an IV infusion just to see if it worked. Seeing that I discharged some urine, they said there was still hope. So they kept the IV in while complaining about the irresponsible police in Meng County Custody Centre for leaving me there like that. They said that they would sue the police.

Thus the prison and the custody centre pushed me back and forth, with neither wanting to keep me, in case I died. I heard the doctors say to the inmates that the Police Department of Henan Province decided I was to be hospitalised in Zhengzhou Prison hospital for treatment. Two weeks later, seeing that I was improving, they prepared to send me to prison. On the morning of July 6th they asked the inmates who were taking care of me to put my stuff together and get me ready to go to the prison. Before the IV infusion was done, they received notice from the Police Department of Henan Province to send me back to Langfang Prison in Hebei Province. At around 10 o'clock, Xie Guozhi, head of Meng County Custody Centre, and Doctor Deng drove to Zhengzhou Prison and put me into the van.

On the way back to Langfang, Xie, in order to shake off the responsibility, spoke to the people in the van in a low voice, "Don't take your mobile phone with you. If Langfang Prison refuses to take him in, do whatever you can to leave him there." Other policemen asked, "What if we can't drive the van out?" Xie said, "We'd rather leave the van behind, even though it costs several hundred thousand yuan."

On the evening of July 6th 2005, we arrived at Langfang Police Department in Hebei Province. The officers said that no one was on duty and asked them to send me to Xinkailu Police Station of Langfang City.

At the police station, a person there told Xie and his people to send me home. It was one or two o'clock on the morning of July 7th. They knocked on the door fiercely. My family opened the door. The man from the police station and Xie Guozhi said they were sending me home. They took the four corners of the blanket and put me on the ground in the yard. Xie and his people from the custody centre called out loud to me, "Shi, you are home now. Open your eyes and take a look." I was not very conscious. I couldn't talk. My body was only bones covered by a layer of skin and I was on the verge of death.

My family said to Xie, "Why doesn't he move? Is he still breathing? Why do you send him home when you have tortured him to such a state?" Xie tried to defend himself by saying, "Do you know how hard it is to bail him out for medical treatment? Do you know how hard it is to release him?" My family said, "Why didn't you do this earlier? We went to ask for his release twice and you wouldn't even see us. Now you send him back when you have tortured him to near death." They carried me inside and put me on the floor. Xie took out the sentencing order and the document indicating that I would serve my term outside of the prison. They hurried to leave while my family was still scolding them.

When they were gone, my family saw that my trousers were wet with excrement and urine. Taking off the trousers, they found pus on my behind. The flesh in that area had rotted away and the bone was exposed.

The foregoing is my experience during the past seven months since my detention on December 11th 2004. As a 70-year-old man, I was arrested, detained, put into a labour camp, and sentenced to prison by the evil Chinese Communist Party and Jiang Zemin's group of scoundrels, just for my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and for wanting to be a good person. I will file my case with the international human rights organisations and file a lawsuit with the International Court. Here I want to call upon all the kind-hearted people in the world to help stop the persecution of Falun Gong. Restore the reputation of Falun Dafa and its practitioners. Let justice prevail."

Note:

(1) Dead Man's Bed - The four limbs of the practitioner are stretched out and tied to the four corners of a cold metal bed frame. The practitioner cannot move at all. He is not allowed to get up to eat, drink, or use the toilet. This treatment usually lasts from several hours to more than a dozen days. As one can imagine, this type of cruel torture causes severe damage to the practitioner's mind and body. See the illustration of this form of torture at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/12/15/55600.html.

(2) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/27/107099.html