Five Years of Imprisonment Devastates the Health of Falun Dafa Practitioner Mr. Zhou Zhigao from Changsha City, Hunan Province

Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Zhou Zhigao from Changsha City, Hunan Province was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2003, and is currently imprisoned at the Wuling Prison in Changde City, Hunan Province. After several years of brutal mistreatment, 57 year-old Mr. Zhou Zhigao has become emaciated with a hunched back. His eyesight has deteriorated badly, and his hearing has become greatly impaired. When he met with his family, the second anything was said about Falun Gong, the police cut off their conversation.

According to the news already disclosed, Mr. Zhou Zhigao suffered merciless beatings at the Wuling Prison by the prison guards with police batons. Because he did not answer the roll call, prison guards pushed him off the top bunk bed onto the ground, which caused him to walk abnormally for a week. Many years of abuse at the prison have caused disease symptoms to appear on his originally healthy body, and the symptoms are becoming more serious every day.

Before practising Falun Gong, Mr. Zhou Zhigao had many serious illnesses, including pulmonary tuberculosis, hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, heart disease and so on. After practising Falun Gong, in just a few months, all the illnesses that had plagued him for many years vanished. His body was healthy and his spirit was joyful.

Jiang's group has irrationally persecuted Falun Gong since July 20th, 1999. The lies they have told cast a dark shadow across China. In order to allow the common people who were deceived by these lies see the truth, Mr. Zhou Zhigao stepped forward to dispel communist party propaganda about Falun Gong to people in various ways. On August 21st, 2002, Mr. Zhou Zhigao was arrested while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution, and his home was ransacked that very evening. After more than a year of imprisonment at the Changqiao Detention Centre in Changsha City, Mr. Zhou Zhigao was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment in 2003.

Because this innocent husband was imprisoned, Mr. Zhou Zhigao's wife and son lost the backbone of their family and were totally dependent on his 200 yuan¹ per month income. In June 2004, the 610 Office of Tianxin District, Changsha City and the 610 Office² of Kaifu District, Changsha City went to the prison to force Mr. Zhou Zhigao to give up cultivation, but Mr. Zhou firmly refused. The 610 personnel became angry out of shame, and ordered Mr. Zhou's employer to immediately stop paying him, leaving his family destitute.

Mr. Zhou Zhigao's wife came to the city from the countryside, and never had a job before. In order to make ends meet, she has become a nanny for now, and is doing various petty jobs to maintain the family. Because of his father's bitter experience, Mr. Zhou Zhigao's son has become introverted and depressed, no longer showing his cheerful demeanour from the past. He also has become emaciated. During the holidays, the mother and son used up their several months' tightly accumulated savings to go to the prison to visit Mr. Zhou.

In China there are many many families like Mr. Zhou Zhigao's that have been forced to suffer, just for persisting in their beliefs.

Wuling Prison in Changde City, Hunan Province:
Zhang Kewu, Warden, 86-13907364358 (mobile), 86-736-7239128
Wu Guogang, deputy warden, 86-13875040726 (mobile), 86-736-7729658
Zhou Rihua, deputy warden, 86-736-7728991
Zeng Rifan, prison Politics Section chief, 86-13974241537 (mobile),
Yan Xiaosong, prison Politics Section deputy chief, 86-13974215421, 86-736-7722522
Guo Jinbo, prison Politics Section deputy chief, 86-736-7898098
Xie Ying, chief of the Strictly Monitored Team, 86-736-7201792

Note

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

2. "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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/6/18/157123.html