College Professor Locked in Solitary Confinement for Seven Days, Subjected to Freezing and Starvation

Guards at Daqing Prison recently put Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Baosheng (张宝胜) into a solitary confinement cell for seven days and tortured him various ways.

On their way back to the cells after a day of forced labour, on September 30th, 2014, prison guard Fu Xuelin (付学林) told all the inmates to squat down and call out loud to thank the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Mr. Zhang remained standing and didn't follow their orders. Fu and several guards went in front of him and yelled at him, trying to force him to squat down.

Mr. Zhang insisted that he was not a criminal, so he didn't have to obey the orders. He reminded them that he had been sentenced for practising Falun Gong.

After the guards ordered all the inmates to return to their cells, they took Mr. Zhang to a solitary confinement cell for “refusing to obey orders,” orders that they knew full well that a Falun Gong practitioner would resist.

Guard Liu Kai (刘凯) ordered an inmate to remove Mr. Zhang's coat and sweater, only leaving the inner layer of clothes on him. The guard also took away all the bedding from the wooden bed.

At night, the temperature in the solitary confinement cell is the same as outside, about 32oF, and there is no heat in the room. Mr. Zhang was freezing and couldn't fall asleep. He had to walk back and forth to keep warm. He could only take a nap during the day when the temperature rose. The guard only provided him with four small buns and some rice gruel every day.

Mr. Zhang was released from the solitary confinement cell on October 6th.

Mr. Zhang, 52, is a former professor at Heilongjiang College of Construction. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2012 for singing a Falun Gong related song at a wedding. He has been detained in Daqing Prison since October 2012.