Imprisoned and Emaciated Practitioner on Hunger Strike Still Tortured

Summary of Key Facts:

Name: Zhang Jinku
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Sandaogang Town, Yilan County, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 29th, 2013
Most recent place of detention: Hulan Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brutal beatings, denied visitation, force-feeding

Mr. Zhang Jinku from Harbin City was sentenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to five years in prison. He is now in Hulan Prison in Harbin. He held a hunger strike and will not speak to protest this miscarriage of justice. His family went to the prison on October 10th, 2013, but Wang, a section chief of the prison, refused to let them visit him, because he refuses to give up his belief in Falun Gong.

Mr. Zhang has become incontinent as a result of torture, is extremely weak, and was put in the prison hospital.

Sentenced and Imprisoned

He and 13 other practitioners from Yilan County were arrested on March 29th, 2013. From July 18th to August 21st, the Yilan County Court tried these practitioners five times and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from three to 13 years. Mr. Zhang was sentenced to five years and put in Jiamusi Prison in Heilongjiang Province.

Before his trial, Mr. Zhang was held in Yilan County Detention Centre. He was in critical condition, having been on a hunger strike for more than three weeks. Detention centre officials were afraid that he might die and didn't dare to force-feed him. They took him to the emergency unit of the Yilan County Chinese Medicine Hospital, where they left him for eight days. Police officers watched him around the clock. They didn't allow his family to visit him, nor did they allow his family to talk to others about him.

Mr. Zhang's family went to Yilan Detention Centre, Police Department, Court, and Procuratorate to seek his release but without success.

On September 19th, 2013, court officials told detention centre officials to notify Mr. Zhang's family to come see him in the morning on September 21st. His family had the false hope that he might be released, but the summons was to tell them to stop trying to get him released.

On September 21st, police officers carried Mr. Zhang, who was still unable to take care of himself, out of the hospital and put him in a prison car. They took him to Jiamusi Prison and continued to torture him.

Force-fed in Prison Despite Frail Condition

In Jiamusi Prison he was force-fed. The prison doctor suggested force-feeding him only a small amount each time, as he was afraid that Mr. Zhang might not survive an intensive force-feeding procedure after being on hunger strike.

The guards couldn't have cared less and force-fed him a full bottle of milk made from milk powder the first time. Mr. Zhang suffered terrible pain and couldn't hear what people were saying. His lower body became numb, he was dizzy, and he vomited everything they put in his stomach. He was very skinny.

His family asked to bring him home and take him to a doctor. The prison lied to his family and told them they would release him after he had a check-up on September 29th. His family went to the prison that day to take him home, only to be told that Jiamusi Prison officials had transferred him and four other practitioners--Mr. Mo Zhikui, Mr. Xu Feng, Mr. Sun Wenfu, and Mr. Li Dapeng--to another prison. His family wanted to know which prison, but they were only told that it was a prison in Harbin. A few days later they learned it was Hulan Prison.

Mr. Zhang has become incontinent in Hulan Prison.