Persecution Incidents in Jilin Prison in July 2008

Jilin Prison is one of the notorious places where Falun Gong practitioners are brutally persecuted. Liu Chengjun, Yang Guang, and other practitioners were persecuted to death there. The following are a few incidents that happened in July 2008. The details were brought to light after going through many channels. Though we only know a small part of the abuses taking place in Jilin Prison, this information helps show the brutality of the persecution there.

1. Intimidation during a "Critique Meeting"

At 6 p.m. on July 14th, 2008, Jilin Prison held a "critique meeting". The deputy prison head that was responsible for "transforming¹" practitioners, Liu Wei said, "Some people wrote anonymous letters to the Labour Education Bureau and the Procuratorate to secretly complain; I will severely punish them if I find out who did this." Equipment to monitor communications was installed on the top of the prison building (it was said to be worth over 1 million yuan²), the purpose of which is to prevent people from sending information about the prison to relevant departments and to outside people. Liu Wei made many threats, including: "Whoever causes damage to this equipment will be tied up and hung upstairs;" "In the second half of the year, we will focus on [persecuting] Falun Gong." and "If you are not afraid of death, I would be happy to bury you and I don't mind paying your funeral expenses."

2. Mr. Liu Yuhe Tortured in the "Strict Prison Section"

At about 2 p.m. on July 30th, 2008, practitioner Mr. Liu Yuhe, who was detained in the No. 5 Prison District, refused to take a photo holding a sign saying "I Disrupted Law Enforcement" that was used to fabricate charges on him. Consequently police officers and several prisoners forcibly took him to the "strict prison section" (at present this prison has been moved to a supermarket building that is far away from the regular prison building and is composed of a number of small cells).

In the strict prison section, the detainees are forced to sit on a narrow stool, from 5 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., causing great pain to the buttocks. Because Liu Yuhe could not sit straight, a policeman shocked his head with electric batons while prisoners held his neck. In severe pain, Liu Yuhe banged his head on the ground to protest³. The officer said, "You want to commit suicide. Take him out!" After a while, the people that were forced to sit on the stools were beaten or were put on a stretching bed. On the second day, Mr. Liu was again forced to sit on a stool, and continued being persecuted. In the Autumn of 2008, he was transferred to Gongzhuling Prison of Jilin Province where he is still suffers abuse.

3. Mr. Wang Yancai Suffers Injury While Attempting to Escape Abuse

Mr. Wang Yancai, is a resident of Gongzhuling. He was sentenced to nine years in prison and is detained in the No. 8 Prison District. After 2 p.m. on July 30th, 2008, the official from the Prison Administration Section of Jilin Prison, Jin Yixie, had a red face and seemed to be drunk. When taking photos, he asked who else had not taken one yet. Someone said one Falun Gong practitioner had not taken one and Jin Yixie said, "Detain him." A prisoner from the Prison Administration Section, Xu Dahui, took Wang Yancai by his hands without being accompanied by policemen and dragged him to the strict prison section (it is illegal for a prisoner to escort other prisoners) over 100 metres away. Wang Yancai said he wanted to talk to the police officer about the reason he didn't hold the sign to take photos. However, Xu Dahui didn't allow him to do so and still kept dragging him to the strict prison section. To escape from Xu Dahui, Wang Yancai ran for over 20 metres until he ran into a pole on the door. He bled all over the ground and was taken to a hospital outside the prison. A CT exam showed that his skull was injured and he also needed 11 stitches. The doctor said to one woman, "This person could die at any time." But the woman said, "This person has a complicated background and we need to write an appraisal according to the situation, etc." At around 6 p.m. Mr. Wang Yancai was taken back to the prison hospital for recovery. Seven days later the stitches were removed, and Wang asked to go back to the prison cell to recover. At present, no prison department has followed up on his condition.

The above are a few examples of the persecution of practitioners

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

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

3. Extreme protest actions such as this case of self-injury are not condoned, as they are not consistent with Falun Gong's teachings.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/2/15/195535.html