Prison Authorities: "We Won't Release Him Even If He Dies Here" -- Mr. Xin Minduo Died at 33

The prison authorities threatened his family, "We won't release him even if he dies. It doesn't matter, even if you appeal at the State Department!" Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Xin Minduo, age 33, was tortured to death at the Nanshan Prison in Jinzhou City on the evening of September 1st, 2006.

Xin Minduo	A picture of Xin Minduo, three days after release from a previous labour camp stay. He could not stand up and could barely support himself and had to lean his head against a wall

Xin Minduo's family waited at Nanshan Prison until 4:30 p.m. on September 1st. They went home after the prison authorities refused to let them meet with him. It turned out to be the day of his death!

Practitioner Xin Minduo was the technical backbone at the Measurement Branch of the Liaohe Oilfield Physical Exploration Company, and was well known for his kindness and generosity. He persisted in practising Falun Gong and following the principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and kept exposing the persecution about Falun Gong. He was brutally persecuted during the past seven years of the persecution. He died with his eyes wide open. His family could not close them, no matter how hard they tried.

Xin Minduo had written an open letter to the families of Liaohe Oilfield employees in 2004. Part of the letter is quoted below:

"At the Panjin City Detention Centre I was handcuffed to the floor in a spread-eagle position and was force-fed with tubes inserted into my nose. The inmates pushed rice porridge into the tube on a daily basis. Several days later my arms were injured and I could not move them. The guards ordered the inmates to yank my arms during the time when the prisoners were let out of cells to exercise. They claimed they were exercising my arms to prevent disability from rope-tying, but they were in fact torturing me. The pain that shot through my body [when they pumped my arms] cannot be described in words. I screamed at first, but later my strength diminished. Twenty-six days passed like this. Another time I was put inside a cage and hung off the ground for seven days. Tan Xiaobiao, the team leader, spit on my face and shocked me daily with an electric baton.

"I was also hung up for three days and nights on another occasion. My feet became swollen and I could not put on my slippers. Also, the front of my body had been severely shocked with electric batons. My head was slammed against the ground once. Another time a group of police with batons had beaten me. A policeman named Chen Changli beat me on the playground until he was out of breath. Every day I was restricted from using the washroom. I was beaten for the issue of going to the washroom. My arms were tied onto a broom, which was tied to a bed so that I could be intravenously forced-fed for three months. I was forced to sit on a plastic stool for eighteen hours every day for almost two months. I was savagely force-fed very often."

2001: Arrested at Work, Xin Minduo Held a Hunger Strike to Protest the Torture He Endured

Officials who broke into Xin Minduo's office arrested him on June 29th, 2001. He spoke about the facts of Falun Dafa to the police, but Wang Youshan from the Liaohe Oilfield 610 Office¹ and officers from the Liaohe Police Department still arrested him and took him to the Liaohe Oilfield Detention Centre. They took his notebook computer worth more than 17,000 yuan², which he bought less than six months prior to the arrest.

Xin Minduo went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution at the Liaohe Oilfield Detention Centre, after he had run out of other options to appeal. The hunger strike lasted nearly forty days during which the guards ordered the inmates to savagely force-feed him. They made the inmates stomp on him, punish his body by using their knees to hurt him, twist his arms, legs and neck, pull his jaw downward, pry his mouth open with a metal tool that knocked several of his teeth loose, and his face was covered in blood. They stabbed him repeatedly with a feeding tube before they were able to insert the tube into his nose. Sometimes they poured food directly into his mouth, which is very likely to choke people. They nearly split his mouth with the metal tool by forcing it to stay open the entire time.

Doctors usually perform force-feeding, but the lawless officials make the inmates carry out the force-feeding while the doctors stood aside and watched. They savagely tortured Xin Minduo during the process, and he screamed continuously. The inmates nearly suffocated him during a force-feeding, and his eyeballs flipped upward.

The doctor finally realised that Xin Minduo was dying. He told the inmates to let go of him. Xin Minduo slowly recovered. Some inmates cried and said it's too cruel, and some inmates said, "I'll have to find some kind of excuse in the future to make sure I never do this again."

2001: On the Brink of Death from Torture at the Panjin Labour Camp

Xin Minduo firmly refused to give up his belief. He and several other Dafa practitioners were sentenced to three years of forced labour. Liaohe Oilfield 610 Office agents and Liaohe Police Department officials pronounced the sentence on August 16th, 2001. He was taken to the Panjin Labour Camp. During the time he was held at the labour camp, he and other practitioners firmly refused to cooperate with the persecutors. When the guards coerced him to write a guarantee statement, to curse Dafa, he said in a serious tone, "Falun Dafa is righteous, and our Teacher is compassionate and saves all beings. Practising Falun Gong and cultivating Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance only benefits the society. You should not go against your conscience."

The camp officials headed by Zhang Shoujiang rampantly tortured detained Falun Gong practitioners. They forced the practitioners to do slave labour, do camp exercises, practise Tai Chi (other meditation, in order to interfere with the principle that one must stay within one cultivation way), listen, watch and read materials that slander Teacher and Dafa. Xin Minduo refused to practise Tai Chi. Chen Changli, head of the Protection and Administration Division, savagely beat him.

On August 17th, 2001, Mr. Xin had started eating only four days after being on a long-term hunger strike at Liaohe Oilfield Detention Centre. He was still very weak and could not walk steadily. Chen Changli openly beat him in the presence of more than 100 people, including other practitioners and guards. He kicked Xin Minduo to the ground and hit him until he rolled in the dust. He then grabbed Xin Minduo's head and violently banged it against the side of a van.

Chen Changli also dragged Xin Minduo into a solitary confinement room about 70 metres [230 ft.] away and then he and several others jumped on Xin Minduo and beat him. People heard Xin Minduo's screams outside the building. Later it was learned that Xin Minduo was beaten until he became incontinent. After the beating, they handcuffed him in a metal cage for more than one week and gave him only one or two pieces of cornbread each day. Xin Minduo's feet swelled so extensively from malnutrition that his ankles were no longer visible.

Dafa practitioners had frequently removed Dafa-slandering words and propaganda on the walls and blackboards of the Protection and Administration Division. The officials retaliated against the practitioners. The guards re-posted the propaganda and kept it there for a while. Xin Minduo always tried to remove the propaganda. One morning, he finally got a chance to tear down a banner with pictures and erase the libellous slogans on the blackboard. The guards barbarically beat him and hung him up in the solitary confinement cell. Division head Tang Xiaobiao tortured him several times by shocking his sensitive body parts for more than thirty minutes. He pinched, kicked and hit Xin Minduo, spit on his face and verbally insulted him. He also taped pieces of paper with Dafa-slandering words on his head.

From then on, Xin Minduo and other practitioners tore down and wiped away the evil slogans, which greatly suppressed the evil. At one point, after nearly all detained Dafa practitioners took part in eliminating the wicked propaganda, the guards stopped posting and writing them. Practitioners were really inspired.

The guards dreaded and hated Xin Minduo because he firmly believed in Dafa and courageously upheld Dafa. He firmly refused to cooperate with all of the persecutors' orders and also refused to recite the twenty detention centre policies. They spared no methods in their torture of Xin Minduo in an attempt to make him compromise, but they always met with defeat. Division head Tang Xiaobiao beat Xin Minduo and hung him up by his handcuffed hands in a solitary confinement cell. Sometimes he shocked Xin Minduo for thirty minutes. This abuser also ordered the inmates to pinch him and violently kick his genitals and abdomen. They struck him to the ground and stomped on him. Once, Tang Xiaobiao kicked Xin Minduo's face with his boots so hard that a piece of flesh and skin came off Xin Minduo's face with each kick.

During the time when Liaohe Oilfield 610 Office agents and Panjin City 610 Office agents interrogated Xin Minduo they threatened him, "You just wait for prison!" They proceeded to shock him with electric batons and hit him with police batons that are fitted with spiral steel bars inside and rubber spikes on the outside. Xin Minduo held up his arms to block the batons. His arms and hands turned black from the heavy blows. He confronted the officials, "Doesn't the law say that torture is forbidden?" One agent ran up to him and hit him while saying, "Who coerced you? Who hit you?" They tried to make him "reform."

Xin Minduo showed no fear. He said kindly, "We benefited greatly through Falun Dafa cultivation and are considerate of others at all times. We think of others first, and we are known as good people. What do you want to transform good people into?" He received another round of beatings for saying these words.

They made Xin Minduo and other practitioners sit on plastic stools for eighteen hours a day without making any movements. They wouldn't let the practitioners use the restroom. The practitioners' buttocks ulcerated and seeped blood and pus. Xin Minduo was savagely beaten many times for trying to use the toilet. The guards encouraged the inmates to frequently beat Dafa practitioners. As a result, Xin Minduo's body was covered in wounds and burn scars from electric shocks.

Xin Minduo continued the long-term hunger strike to protest the inhuman torture at the Panjin Forced Labour Camp. According to other practitioners who were once held there with him, Xin Minduo's hunger strike lasted more than five months (someone said it was more than six months). During this period he was force-fed, beaten and locked in a solitary confinement cell, among other things. All of his tongue coating fell off and his mouth ulcerated so severely that he could not open it. He could no longer speak and he didn't have the strength to open his eyes. He had a weak pulse, and his body was also covered in scabies that caused intense itching.

Xin Minduo was held at the labour camp for eleven months. He endured all kinds of tortures, verbal abuse, beating and other corporal punishments. He was on the brink of death after nearly six months of being on a hunger strike. Then, on May 28th, 2002, his father carried him home in his arms. Mr. Xin weighed 40 kg [88 lbs].

2003: 26 Days on the Death Bed³

Xin Minduo was arrested again while appealing for Dafa on April 2nd, 2003. He was cruelly tortured. Zhang Runqiu, former head of the Xinglongtai District National Security Division in Panjin City took 1,200 yuan, two mobile phones and keys from him. Xin Minduo was again sent to the Panjin City Detention Centre where he went on another hunger strike. He was tortured on the death bed for 26 days, which nearly killed him.

Liu Jingyu, deputy head of Xinglongtai District National Security Division phoned Xin Minduo's parents on April 29th, 2003, and told them to bring 20,000 yuan to the division the next day. His parents went there the next day and asked Liu Jingyu about Xin Minduo's condition. Liu Jingyu said, "Your son is in bad health. You have to pay a 20,000 yuan guarantee fee for him to get out on medical parole."

His parents said, "We don't have that much money! Would 10,000 yuan be enough?" Liu Jingyu said in a cold voice, "No! Forget it if you don't want to save your son. We'll go on break tomorrow, and you'll be responsible for your son's life!" Xin Minduo's parents asked the purpose of the money. Division head Zhang Runqiu said, "Pay first and we'll let you know later." Zhang Runqiu personally persecuted many practitioners and had extorted between 300,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan from practitioners' families over the past few years.

They eventually released Xin Minduo after his parents paid 20,000 yuan. When he first went home, Xin Minduo could neither sit nor sleep. His whole body ached within two hours after he returned home. The pain never stopped. He could not get a wink of sleep for three days. His upper body was dysfunctional and he could not turn over in a chair. He could not hold things with his hands and could not even grab toilet paper.

According to Xin Minduo, police officer Zhao had once said to him, "If I don't put you in prison this time, I'll change my last name to yours." They fabricated charges against Xin Minduo and filed a lawsuit at the procuratorate that later rejected the suit. Below is an excerpt of Xin Minduo's statement:

"At the Panjin City Labour Camp, I was tortured in the 'fixed position' (fixing a person in the same posture) for one month. Both my hands and legs were handcuffed to the ground and stretched out like the Chinese character da. I was force-fed with tubes inserted into my nose. The prisoners were ordered to clean away my feces and urine. My arms were severely injured, and I was in critical condition. Finally I was released, but only after my family paid twenty thousand yuan. One week after I arrived home, the police came to harass me again. My arms were in such pain then that I hardly slept or took off my clothes. After the police left, I made the choice again to leave home, in fragile condition."

2005: Third Arrest and Incarceration at the Panjin City Detention Centre

Xin Minduo began exposing the persecution again after he had slightly recovered. Officers from the Xinglongtai National Security Division including division head Xu Hao closely followed him and located him via surveillance technology.

On the afternoon of August 3rd, 2005, five men jumped from a van and attacked Xin Minduo, who was riding a bicycle. They knocked him to the ground and dragged him into the van. The passersby thought the police were thugs committing a robbery. When Xin Minduo shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" they realised the police were again arresting a good person who practises Falun Gong. They were plainclothes police and had not presented their ID or an arrest warrant. They told people that they were arresting a con artist.

People were angry when they saw the police punching Xin Minduo like a sandbag. One passerby confronted the police saying, "Why are you beating him like this?" A police officer said in a low voice, "We are police, and he practises Falun Gong." He flashed his ID. The passersby asked, "What law did he violate? What's wrong with practising Falun Gong? The law is the standard that you should use to judge him. Why are you as cops beating him?" The officer whispered, "What are you doing?" The passerby answered, "Never mind what I do! Why are you beating him to death? Who authorised you to do this?" Other passersby also condemned the police. The head police officer led the other officers. They left hastily to avoid the angry crowd.

Xin Minduo was held at the Panjin City Detention Centre for the third time. He later learned that this group of police officers was headed by Xu Hao, head of the Xinglongtai District National Security Division.

Xu Hao took Xin Minduo's keys and later broke into his home and ransacked it in Xin Minduo and his family's absence. He took a new refrigerator, washer, more than 12,600 yuan in cash, a bank deposit book in the amount of 5,000 yuan that belonged to Xin Minduo's father, two full tanks of propane, computer(s), and other valuable personal belongings. Later, when Xin Minduo's mother and several relatives went to pick up some of Xin Minduo's clothes at his place under the supervision of National Security Agents, she was shocked by what she saw. The whole place was turned upside down. All drawers were open, things were strewn about, and all valuables were missing. Not a single penny was left.

Xin Minduo's mother confronted Xu Hao, "My son is not a robber! Why did you take his refrigerator, washer, deposit slip and cash? What does that have to do with him practising Falun Gong?" Xu Hao said, "Do you have receipts for all those things? If he didn't steal them, how come you don't have any receipts?" Xin Minduo's mother said, "You did not even leave behind a single scrap of paper. You took all the receipts! Why are you asking me to show receipts?"

The money and property taken by the National Security Division from Xin Minduo's family totalled upwards of 50,000 yuan. The police are still withholding a large portion of the things and never gave any reasonable explanation for the ransacking.

2006: We'll Torture You to Death!"

During the third detention, Xin Minduo held another hunger strike to protest the illegal detention and was again brutally force-fed. The guards at Panjin Detention Centre force-fed him unknown substances and tied him spread-eagle in bed for a long time. One of his front teeth was knocked out. He had become emaciated, yet the authorities refused to release him.

The Panjin City Court and persons from the Xinglongtai District Court transferred Xin Minduo to the Nanshan Prison in Panjin City on February 21st, 2006, although he was in critical condition. Xin Minduo had by that time been held and tortured at the detention centre for about seven months. When the Xinglongtai District Court tried him on false charges the National Security Division had produced, Mr. Xin Minduo could neither stand up nor walk. Several people carried him into the court. The police forbade Xin Minduo's family and friends to meet with him before the trial. They even prevented Xin Minduo's lawyer, whom the National Security Division had appointed, to meet with Xin Minduo and his family. They ignored Xin Minduo's ill health.

The Xinglongtai District Court, a preliminary court, didn't notify Xin Minduo's family and didn't post a trial announcement. Xin Minduo's family learned about it and spread the information among relatives. Surprisingly, the court required Xin Minduo's family to show their ID before they could audit the trial and videotaped the family's faces. Family and relatives who didn't know about the "rule" and didn't bring their ID were blocked from entering court.

Persecutor Xu Hao, who received promotions through his persecution of Falun Gong, and other officials fabricated evidence. They took possession of Xin Minduo's personal property by omitting them from the list of confiscated items. They also made up the story that they had found 1,100 VCDs at Xin Minduo's home. They lied further and claimed Xin Minduo and his wife had made them. They produced false picture evidence.

Xin Minduo's mother said, "My son doesn't have a VCD recorder at home. How can he produce any VCDs?" Xu Hao took out some pictures that show a few VCDs laying on the floor, but the floor in the picture is not the tile floor in Xin Minduo's home. The police didn't expect their trick to be so quickly exposed.

Persecutor Xu Hao and others also forged Xin Minduo's signature on the list of confiscated items, to justify the legitimacy of the persecution. When Xin Minduo's mother pointed out that the signature on the document is not that of Xin Minduo, Xu Hao became angry and said, "I can sign on behalf of Xin Minduo if I have three witnesses!" After the trial, the officials went to Yuan Yinghua, head of the Xingshun Neighbourhood Committee at the Xinghai Street Office and ordered her to sign a "witness's in-court testimony," although she did not appear in court.

Xu Hao and Ma Li, the Xinglongtai District Court's head woman judge covertly decided before the trial they would sentence Xin Minduo to 13 years in prison. Xu Hao and other officials thought they had fabricated enough evidence. They had appointed a lawyer to defend Xin Minduo but had told him before the trial to plead guilty. The lawyer didn't follow their orders however. Instead, he defended Xin Minduo's innocence. The officials panicked, but they still thought they had control over the situation, so they allowed Xin Minduo to hire his own lawyer in subsequent trials. Behind the scenes, however, they asserted pressure on Xin Minduo's lawyer.

Xin Minduo's lawyer and Mr. Xin himself exposed the false evidence. People auditing the trial were shocked. They realised that persecutor Xu Hao and other officials had fabricated the so-called criminal evidence, and that Dafa practitioners including Xin Minduo should be released. People looked at the judge, but he announced adjournment.

After the trial Xu Hao went to Xin Minduo's lawyer and said, "I'm in charge of the case. Please help me out and spare me public embarrassment." The lawyer said, "I must follow the law and deal with matters according to the law and evidence." Xu Hao was furious and threatened, "You wait and see! If you ever fall under my jurisdiction, I'll make sure to fix you for good!" It was learned that the city and the district Politics and Law Committee had orchestrated this illegal trial.

Although no verdict was reached during the trial, Xu Hao and judge Ma Li secretly sentenced Xin Minduo to 13 years in prison. They didn't issue the verdict to Xin Minduo or his family to prevent them from appealing the sentence, but Xin Minduo's family learned of the sentence. They immediately appealed with the Panjin City Intermediate Court. The lawyer presented a strong defence. The Panjin City Court rejected the verdict and ordered the Xinglongtai District Court to review the case.

Persecutor Xu Hao and others continued to fabricate even more false evidence. They colluded with judge Ma Li to continue to persecute Xin Minduo. The public prosecutor and the procuratorate didn't do anything to stop them. They didn't conduct any investigation and they didn't verify the facts.

The Xinglongtai District Court upheld the original sentence on January 15th, 2006. Dafa practitioner Xin Minduo was taken to the Nanshan Prison on February 21st, 2006 despite his extremely weak condition.

Cremation to Destroy Evidence of the Circumstances Surrounding His Death

While he was held at the Nanshan Prison, Xin Minduo firmly persisted in his belief in Dafa. He refused to wear the prison uniform and refused to do slave labour. He demanded unconditional release and was locked in a solitary confinement cell. He continued with a hunger strike and was savagely tortured.

Xin Minduo's family contacted the prison authorities many times during July and August 2006, until the officials agreed to let the family meet with Xin Minduo. When the family arrived at the Nanshan Prison in the sweltering heat they were told they could not see Xin Minduo. Xin Minduo's elderly parents walked in circles outside the prison. Their eyesight had deteriorated over the years from anguish, anxiety and fear. They lost many of their teeth. The prison authorities said to them, "You wrote threatening letters [truth clarification letters] to us and exposed us [on the Internet]. You've angered our supervisor. You think you are that powerful? Go and do whatever you want. We won't release him even if he dies here!"

Another young life thus perished under the dictum of the Communist Party on September 1st, 2006.

The prison authorities cremated Xin Minduo's body at 6:00 a.m. on September 3rd, 2006.

Xin Minduo's story is yet another proof of Jiang Zemin's policy, "beating [Falun Gong practitioners] to death is nothing and shall be counted as suicide; do not identify the bodies and cremate them directly."

The source of this story claims that Xin Minduo's eyes were wide open after his death. He had an excruciating look of pain on his face. His family tried to close his eyes several times but they remained open. They also learned that Xin Minduo was force-fed a thick paste and highly concentrated salt water. He was probably suffocated.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

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

3. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/9/17/138010.html