Mr. Zhang Litian Beaten to Death in Jinzhou City Prison, Liaoning Province

On November 17th, 2008 Mr. Zhang Litian was beaten to death after being detained in the Jinzhou City Prison for one month. His daughter, Zhang Xintong, an elementary school student, is only nine years old.

Mr. Zhang Litian (right)	His daughter Zhang Xintong

Mr. Zhang Litian, 36, lived in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province. His home town is Laizhou City, Shandong Province. He was employed by the Chaoyang City Precise Strip Steel Factory as an in-house crane operator. He began cultivating Falun Gong in 1998, changed his bad temper, and started working very hard. After the persecution started in 1999, he was harassed and mistreated by police.

In February 2000, officers from Guangming Police Station in Shuangta District arrested and detained him for 15 days in the Chaoyang City Detention Centre. He was released after the police extorted 2000 yuan¹ from him. In July 2000, he went to the Political Security Office of the Chaoyang City Police Department to declare all his written guarantees to give up Falun Gong during the detention null and void. The officers tortured him by tying his hands behind his back, then hanging him from his tied up hands, forcing his head down. His wife came to the office and reasoned with officers who tortured him, and he was released.

In the spring of 2001, Mr. Zhang and his wife took a walk with their young daughter. Officers from Lingfeng Police Station drove a vehicle to block them off, and a group of police arrested Mr. Zhang on the street. Mr. Zhang was holding their daughter, who was crying because she felt threatened. The couple loudly criticized the officers that scared their baby and told them to back off so he could put down the crying baby. The officers scattered, and Mr. Zhang escaped. He had to leave home to avoid being arrested and lost his job in July of 2001.

Mr. Zhang had to pedal a cart to make a living. In the summer of 2001, an overweight man asked to go to the Nanta Community, and he called on his mobile phone with some secret coded message as soon as he got into the cart. When they arrived at the Nanta Community, several plain clothes officers arrested Mr. Zhang. He then learned that the overweight man was also an officer from the Lingfeng Police Station. They imprisoned him in the Shijiahetao Detention Centre. Mr. Zhang went on hunger strike, and was brutally force-fed. He was released after 19 days when his life was in danger.

Upon returning home, officers from the Lingfeng Police Station kept harassing him, and threatened him and his wife with arrest at any time. A couple of days later, when Mr. Zhang went grocery shopping, he was arrested again by officers from the Lingfeng Police Station. They directly took him to be detained in the Xidayingzi Forced Labor Camp with a two-year term. He was inhumanly tortured in the camp, beaten by Warden Yu Zhentao, and locked in a Small Cell² by Deputy Warden Li Fu. He was released in the beginning of 2004.

On the evening of September 20th, 2004, officer Qi Zongmin and Community Administration Chair Ma Yue arrived at Mr. Zhang's home, ransacked the place, and ordered Mr. Zhang to give them his personal ID, which they failed to collect. They took Mr. Zhang's mobile phone instead. On June 18th, 2005, Qi Zongmin and another officer stormed into Mr. Zhang's home again, ransacked the place, then threatened to send Mr. Zhang to a forced labour camp. Mr. Zhang Litian was forced to go to his home town Zhuma Village in Shandong Province.

He was barely settled in Shandong in April 2008 when the Party arrested him to "prepare for the Olympics." Laizhou City 610 Office³ Chief Liu Jingbing led a group of officers to ransack his father's home where he was staying, took 900 yuan from Mr. Zhang Litian's pocket, then tried to take their motorcycle away, but were stopped by the family. The Liazhou police transferred Mr. Zhang to the Taihe District and Jinzhou City police, and he was locked in the Jinzhou City First Detention Centre. There was an arrest warrant issued for him, which indicated he would be put on trial and sentenced to prison.

In July 2008, the Taihe District Court held a secret trial in the detention centre for Mr. Zhang without notifying his family and issued a sentence of five years in prison on August 7th, 2008. When Mr. Zhang's family heard of this from their friends, his 72 year-old father rushed to Jinzhou City and hired a lawyer to represent Mr. Zhang in the second trial. The Jinzhou City Middle Court refused to hold a retrial for Mr. Zhang's case and sustained the original sentencing. Mr. Zhang was taken to the 20th Ward of the Jinzhou City Prison in October 2008.

According to eyewitnesses, Mr. Zhang Litian was beaten multiple times by prisoners upon entering the prison. On November 16th, 2008, he went on hunger strike to protest the brutal beatings. The next day, on November 17th, Warden Zhang Baozhi encouraged four prisoners (including Liu Peiyan and Li Yong) to cruelly beat Mr. Zhang Litian to death. Many prisoners witnessed this incident.

On November 18th, the local police called Mr. Zhang's family in Laizhou City, Shandong Province and told them that he died on November 17th, from a heart attack. Mr .Zhang's family expressed disbelief, saying that Mr. Zhang never had any heart problems. Only one month earlier, his aunt visited him in the prison, and he was in good health. Mr. Zhang wrote to his family on November 5th, asking them to send a pair of cotton quilted shoes. How did he suddenly have an heart attack? Why did they not notify his family on the same day? Was any rescue effort made?

Mr. Zhang Litian's family saw his body on November 24th, 2008 in the Jinzhou City Funeral House. There were many injuries, especially around his heart. It was obvious that the wounds were caused by a beating, not a heart attack. They requested through their lawyer that the Jinzhou City Suburban Procuratorate conduct an autopsy. Warden Zhang Baozhi had Mr. Zhang's body taken back to the Prison on November 26th, deceived the funeral home into thinking that they were going to conduct the autopsy, and asked the funeral home to keep it a secret. There is no freezer in the prison. The Prison Administration is responsible for any destruction of evidence by this deception.

The Suburban Procuratorate Judge said the autopsy must be done by local forensic doctors. They have not agreed to the family's request to hire a third party forensic doctor. The Prison Administration is trying very hard to cover up their crime. They want to lie to the public and claim that Mr. Zhang died of sudden illness. Many prisoners that witnessed his death were enraged because they saw through the Prison Administration's evil intent by conducting a "Contagious disease prevention education." Early on the morning of November 21st, the four prisoners who beat Mr. Zhang Litian to death were taken to an unknown place.

This is the third death case after Mr. Xin Minduo (see http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200609/35428.htmll) and Mr. Cui Zhilin (see http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200701/37496.html) in the Jinzhou City Prison.

Xin Tingquan, Jinzhou City Prison Director: 86-13941606658 (Mobile), 86-416-3496001 (Office)
Li Yazhou, Deputy Director of Jinzhou City Police Department (in charge of persecution affairs): 86-416-2572018 (Office), 86-416-2388888 (Home), 86-13897886666 (Mobile),
Li Weijia, Jinzhou City 610 Office Chief: 86-416-2136181 (Home)
Li Yinting, Taihe District Police Department Chief: 86-416-5169777/2343777, 86-13941630777 (Mobile),
Li Zhanshun, Taihe District Court Chief: 86-416-7188188/2142866, 86-13941690388 (Mobile),
Wang Hui, Jinzhou City "Anti-cult" Division Chief: 86-416-2389966 (Home)
Dai Yong, Taihe District Domestic Security Division Chief: 86-13604965462 (Mobile),

Earlier report: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200811/46960.html

Note

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

2. The detainee is locked up in a very small cell individually. The guards handcuff practitioners behind their backs in a fixed position, in which the practitioners can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served to detainees locked up in a small cell during the daytime. During the night the rats run around. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.

3. "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.org/mh/articles/2008/11/29/190687.html