Three Months into His Three-Year Term: Mr. Mu Zhitai Suffers Brainwashing and Torture Daily

“Those who refuse to write the ['repentance'] statements [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] will meet the same fate: languish in three days, collapse in a week, become bedridden in two weeks, and appear in hell in a month,” threatened an inmate in Jiazhou Prison, where Mr. Mu Zhitai has been detained since three months ago.

Prison guard Gong Jinfu told him, “I can't beat you with my hands and feet, but I can use my weapons to injure, disable, or even kill you. I may be cited for 'improper use of police equipment,' but I'll still have my job and get paid. What can you do to me? I have permission from my supervisors. I have nothing to worry about."

This is the reality Mr. Mu faces in the prison in Leshan, Sichuan Province: guards allow him to sleep for only two hours each day, from midnight to two o'clock. He is forced to sit or stand in a military pose for the other 22 hours.

One week into his detention, the guards started to shock him with electric batons. Instigated by guards, inmates dragged him to a toilet, where there are no surveillance cameras, and beat and kicked him.

Family Harassed, Intimidated by Police

Mr. Mu, 45, made a living and supported his son's schooling by operating a manual rickshaw.

On July 6th, 2012, Mr. Mu was arrested by Fucheng District Police Station. There, police attempted to obtain a confession from Mr. Mu through torture. After multiple trials, Fucheng Court sentenced him to three years in prison on March 1st, 2013. The sentence was upheld on January 23rd, 2014 by the Intermediate Court in Mianyang City.

When he was transferred to Jiazhou Prison in March, his family was kept in the dark.

The family lived under tremendous pressure and fear in the past years. During Chinese New Year in 2007, a few months after Mr. Mu returned from his second labour camp term, more than ten officers from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and the local police station pressured his wife to divorce him. To avoid further persecution, Mr. Mu left home and stayed in various places.

Personnel from the Beichuan County 610 Office, Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and local police station have frequently harassed Mr. Mu's family and ransacked his home since the inception of the persecution in July 1999.

As a result, Mr. Mu's father fell ill and passed away in September 2000.

Physical Abuse in Two Labour Camp Terms

After more than two months' detention, Mr. Mu was sentenced in March 2001 to two years at the Xinhua Labour Camp, where each day he was forced to stand or run for long periods of time, or sit on a “small stool” (a torture method that often leaves the victim's flesh festering).

In addition to the tortures, he was forced to do slave labor. Because he refused to write statements renouncing his faith, he was allowed to sleep only from 3 am to 5 am each day during the month of June 2012.

In August 2005, the head of the local Domestic Security Division, Pu Jianguo, broke into his home and arrested him again. A month later, he was sentenced to another one-year term in a labour camp.

Prior Arrests and Police Brutality

Mr. Mu Zhitai previously reported that after practising Falun Gong helped him get rid of gambling and other addictions, he began to live a healthy life in 1997. When the Chinese Communist regime launched its persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, he travelled to Beijing in December 2000 to petition the government to stop the persecution. There, he was arrested for the first time.

After dunking his head into a toilet, officers cuffed him and pushed him against a wall so forcefully the metal cuffs broke. Officers then beat and kicked him all over before confiscating his watch and four hundred yuan¹ in cash.

Despite the authorities' violent suppression of his appeals, Mr. Mu went back to Tiananmen Square many times to tell the public, “Falun Gong is good,” in an effort to counteract the propaganda campaign by state-controlled media. After multiple arrests, he was transported back to his hometown, Beichuan, and detained on January 15th, 2001.

At the Beichuan County Detention Centre, Officer Xiao Longze ordered inmates to beat him. After these frequent beatings, he coughed up blood for a long time.

Officers from Beichuan County Police Station extorted 2,000 yuan from his family during his trip to Beijing.

As he was leaving home to go to work on April 1st, 2012, he was arrested again by officers from the Mianyang City Domestic Security Division, led by Officer Zhou Ze. The police confiscated his bank cards, IDs, rickshaw, and other personal possessions. His worried family did not find out about the arrest until they asked his coworkers about his sudden disappearance.

After Mr. Mu managed to escape from police custody, officers harassed other local Falun Gong practitioners in search of his whereabouts.

Mr. Mu's son and relatives went to the police station in early June to demand the return of his confiscated items but were told, “We can't return the items without Zhou Ze's permission.”

Note

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