Belated News: Tortured Nearly to Death Several Times, Engineer Dies in Forced Labour Camp

After 14 years of torture for his belief, Mr. Gao Dong died at the end of 2013 in a prison in Shenyang City. He was 49 years old at the time.

Before the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Mr. Gao, a Falun Gong practitioner since 1996, was an engineer at Liaohe Oilfield.

Before his last imprisonment, he was arbitrarily arrested for his belief six times, tortured in a forced labour camp three times, and twice incarcerated in a mental hospital and once in a brainwashing centre. He was tortured nearly to death four times. Because of the persecution he lost his job, his wife divorced him, and his family didn't want to have anything to do with him, fearing government retaliation.

His last arrest took place around December 2011. He was incarcerated in Kangjiashan Prison in Shenyang. He went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. The staff shocked him with an electric baton, hit him, and forced him to watch videos slandering Falun Gong.

The authorities force-fed Mr. Gao through a tube inserted through his nose to his stomach, while his arms and legs were tied down on a bed. He often vomited due to the brutal feeding, and the authorities would feed him his own vomit. They sometimes added urine to the mix, as well.

To get their sentences reduced, the prisoners abused Mr. Gao to try to force him to give up his practice. They once poured boiling water on his thighs, causing severe blistering.

Mr. Gao's health deteriorated, and he was sent to Dabei Prison Hospital, where the torture continued. He was often covered in bruises when he returned to the prison.

Mr. Gao died in prison two years later.

Mr. Gao was tortured in Panjin Forced Labour Camp in 1999 for going to Beijing to protest the persecution. He was tied down and beaten with wooden bats and force-fed. His nose bled and he vomited blood. He was hung up by his handcuffs, hit in the head with hard objects, and shocked with electric batons.

He was tortured to the verge of death, taken to the hospital, and pronounced untreatable. The camp authorities didn't want to be held responsible in the event of his death, so they left him at the door of his workplace.

Mr. Gao survived, eventually recovered, and tried to go back to work. The authorities again arrested him and detained him in the Liaohe Oilfield Detention Centre. He was relentlessly beaten overnight until he stopped breathing. After emergency treatment he regained consciousness, but due to extended oxygen deprivation, his brain was damaged.

Mr. Gao was again arrested in 2008 ahead of the Olympics and taken to Benxi Forced Labour Camp. In the camp he was tied down on a bed naked. For two months he was repeatedly beaten, stabbed with needles, and shocked with electric batons. After a particularly vicious beating, Mr. Gao's heart stopped and his blood pressure dropped to zero.

When Mr. Gao managed to regain consciousness, the torture resumed. Over the next six months, his weight dropped from 160 to 80 pounds. Both of his legs were broken, he lost control of his bowels, and he experienced swelling all over his body. He was then injected with unknown nerve-damaging drugs. The authorities claimed that he had mental problems and threw him out.

Because he couldn't walk and had no where to go, Mr. Gao almost died on the street. Falun Gong practitioners found him in 2009 and took care of him until he started to recover. He went home to Haicheng in 2011, and the authorities arrested him for the last time before he was tortured to death two years later.