Germany: Deputy Chief of Public Security for Hubei Province in China, Zhao Zhifei, Faces Another Lawsuit (Part II)

In November 2003, 41 Falun Gong practitioners from Europe, North America and Australia sued sixteen Chinese officials in Germany. Among them, Zhao Zhifei, Deputy Chief of Public Security for Hubei Province, was sued overseas by Falun Gong practitioners for the second time on charges of Genocide, Infliction of Cruel Torture and Crimes Against Humanity.

A large amount of evidence and documentation proves that Zhao Zhifei was the primary person responsible for the “610 Office”* in Hubei Province. The 610 Office instructed all the police stations, detention centres, prisons, and all those who dealt with Falun Gong affairs in various departments and units in Hubei Province to use cruel torture, intimidation of practitioners’ personal connections (such as friends, relatives and colleagues) and all kinds of other hard and soft approaches to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. No matter what they did, whether it was cruel torture or a something more subtle, their purpose was to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief in “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” and to eradicate Falun Gong.

In July 2001, Peng Liang, a Falun Gong practitioner from Wuhan City in Hubei Province, filed a lawsuit with a U.S. court against Zhao Zhifei, Deputy Chief of Public Security and current Head of the 610 Office of Hubei Province. The details of the lawsuit were communicated via the Internet. On December the 21st 2001, the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York issued a default judgement against Zhao Zhifei, charging him with killing, cruel torture, illegal imprisonment and crimes against humanity in his treatment of Falun Dafa practitioners in Hubei Province. It also pronounced that Zhao was in violation of other international human rights laws and had the liability for compensation. That was the first time in which a Chinese official was found guilty of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

1. Peng Liang’s younger brother, Peng Min, was killed, but the Chinese Central Television fabricated lies to cover it up

• He was arrested and beaten to disablement because he practised Falun Gong

According to Falun Dafa website clearwisdom.net, Peng Liang’s younger brother, Peng Min, was arrested in March 2000 and incarcerated in Qingling Prison. Under police guard Zhu Handong’s instruction, Peng Min was violently beaten by inmates on many occasions. He was pushed on a wooden bed and struck by fifteen or sixteen inmates on his buttocks with the soles of plastic shoes until they became afraid that Peng Min might be dead. Peng was brutally beaten many times because he practised Falun Gong.

In August and September of 2000, there were two 13-15 centimetre pustules on the central part of Peng Min’s buttocks and left leg. Instead of arranging necessary medical treatment, the prison authorities hinted to other inmates to take advantage of this opportunity to “teach him a lesson.” More than ten inmates pushed him onto a wooden bed and took turns to press the pustules on his body, which resulted in unbearable pain for him. It was so painful that his entire body went into spasm. Because of this suffering, he couldn’t sleep for almost a month and could only cower around the doorframe, which caused tremendous damage to his health. Many eyewitnesses testified that the police cruelly beat Peng on January the 9th 2001, which led to the fracture of the fifth bone of his vertebra and of his cervical vertebra. Since he was entirely paralysed, his mother took him home to recuperate after she heard the news.

• The “610 Office” incited the hospital to proceed with the persecution

When Peng’s mental and physical condition started to improve, the riot brigade of the Municipal Public Security Bureau dispatched around thirty policemen to forcibly escort him to Wuhan Seventh Hospital for so-called "treatment". Upon arriving at the hospital, the police, together with special agents from the city’s “610 Office”, isolated Peng Min in a small room at the end of the orthopaedics wards on the hospital’s second floor. The room was blocked so that no one could see in. His mother and younger brother (Peng Liang) were forced to take care of him day and night, and were not allowed to leave. On the surface, they were asked to take care of Peng Min, but in reality they were under house arrest, in order to stop them leaking news to the outside world. In the meantime, the policemen from Zhongnan Street Police Station in Wuchang City were ordered to stay in the room next door around the clock to prevent them from contacting anyone on the outside. Peng Min was not allowed to read any Falun Dafa books or listen to Falun Dafa music. Under instruction from the “610 Office” and the municipal public security bureau, the hospital turned a blind eye to Peng Min’s critical condition throughout his stay in the hospital. The hospital even told his family members that Peng Min would never be discharged until he was dead. At that time, Peng Min had completely lost consciousness, and his back had developed a large wound because of the persecution he suffered in the forced labour camp.

• CCTV fabricated lies to cheat the general public

On March the 9th 2001, when reporters from a talk show programme of the Chinese Central Television and the Wuhan Television Station went to the hospital and “interviewed” Peng Min and his family members, the hospital’s attitude was completely different. While facing the lens of cameras, they applied medicine to Peng Min’s body and helped him turn over to face the camera lens. They told the reporters, “We have arranged the best doctors, used the most advanced equipment and the most effective medicine to treat Peng Min.” Peng Min and his family members immediately exposed the lies of the hospital authorities. Peng Min also elaborated on how he was hurt and became paralysed. He repeatedly emphasised that he did not become paralysed because he practised Falun Gong but because of the vicious persecution he had suffered. However, the reporters from the Chinese Central Television turned a deaf ear to him. Instead, they asked some superficial and empty questions to cover up the facts. They asked Peng Min’s mother, “As your son is so sick do you feel regret?” His mother sternly replied, “No regret at all!” Afterwards, his mother told other practitioners that the reason she had no regret was that her son had chosen a righteous path!

• Died with a grievance and was forcibly cremated by the police

At about 6 p.m. on April 6th 2001, Peng Min died. His remains were forcibly cremated by the police at around 10 a.m. on April 7th 2001. The police in the prison clearly knew the sinister reasons behind the immediate cremation. His father Peng Weisheng was escorted from Hewan Forced Labour Camp to have a look at Peng Min’s remains, and afterwards he was sent back to Hewan Forced Labour Camp. Peng Min’s younger sister Peng Yan was in a jail, and she had no idea about Peng Min’s death for a long time afterwards.

2. Peng Liang’s Mother Li Yingxiu

• Her skull was fractured by the police and she died shortly after being rushed to a hospital

After Peng Min died, the police sent Peng Liang and his mother Li Yingxiu to Hongxia Brainwashing Centre, and assigned someone to personally guard them. Li Yingxiu was affected by the death of her son and didn’t eat for several days. Furthermore, the spicy food and lack of a thick blanket in the brainwashing centre left her with the symptoms of a fever. As a result, four policemen forcibly rushed her to a hospital. After returning to the brainwashing centre that day, Li Yingxiu told the police that she had got over the sickness and removed the intravenous drip. But she was violently beaten by four vicious policemen and escorted to another place. Li Yingxiu immediately said that she would write down all the crimes that these wicked policemen had done to her. The policemen thus fractured her skull, and she died in a hospital twenty-two days after Peng Min’s death. Peng Liang’s mother, Li Yingxiu, died on April the 29th 2001, in the hospital where her son died.

• The police and CCTV tried to cover up their crimes

Li Yingxiu’s husband Peng Weisheng went to the Seventh Hospital in handcuffs to take a last look at her remains. He found that Li Yingxiu's hair had been completely shaven revealing wounds on her head; there was blood in her nose and mouth, and bloodstains on her clothes. Peng Weisheng angrily asked the police and the medical personnel on the scene how Li Yingxiu had died. The doctor on the scene said, “Li Yingxiu died of a cerebral haemorrhage, and the bloodstains on her head resulted from the brain punctures and dissection.” But Peng Weisheng knew that Li Yingxiu had no medical history of cerebral haemorrhages. A policeman told him that the reason behind Li Yingxiu’s death was that she “talked too much” after her son died. Afterwards, to cover up the crimes they committed, Chinese Central Television reported that Li Yingxiu died of “an acute cerebral haemorrhage.”

3. Peng Liang

• Jailed after appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing

Because he appealed for Falun Gong in Beijing in 1999, Peng Liang was arrested and jailed in the Qingling Hongxia Brainwashing Centre of Wuchang District in Wuhan City, from March through to the end of August 2000. He suffered immensely cruel torture there. On the eve of National Day 2000, he was detained for fifteen days for no reason. It was said that the Chinese authorities were afraid that he might appeal in Beijing again.

When Peng Min was about to die, Peng Liang was imprisoned in the Qingling Hongxia Brainwashing Centre in Wuchang District. After Peng Liang wrote a so-called “guarantee statement”** and was released from the brainwashing centre, he joined his mother to take Peng Min home from the hospital. After Peng Min died, Peng Liang and his mother Li Yingxiu were again jailed and guarded in Hongxia Brainwashing Centre.

After his younger brother and mother died, in addition to a series of blows, Peng Liang was slapped on his face 40 times every day by the guards. He thus wrote a “guarantee statement” again, though he had torn up the last one. Because he wrote this statement renouncing his beliefs and freedom, Peng Liang was allowed to repair vehicles at the entrance of an electricity company around the Small East Gate of the brainwashing centre. Therefore, he had the opportunity to plan the lawsuit against the warped officials who had tortured his mother and his younger brother.

• He sued the evil officials in a United States court, as he was continuously without access to justice in China

With other practitioners’ help, Peng Liang finally filed a lawsuit with a U.S. court against Zhao Zhifei, Deputy Chief of Public Security and the current Head of the “610 Office” of Hubei Province, by communicating through the Internet in July 2001. Under this kind of circumstance, Peng Liang had no choice but to temporarily go into hiding to avoid suffering further persecution. Because of the tip-offs from traitors, Peng Liang and some other practitioners who had offered to help him, such as Wuhan city practitioners Yan Zhigang and Liu Xunchun, were apprehended in August 2001.

After being arrested, Peng Liang was jailed in the Second Prison in Wuhan, where criminals subject to capital punishment are imprisoned. Afterwards, he was transferred to Wuchang’s Qingling Prison and finally ended up in the 610 Brainwashing Centre in Wuchang District. Peng Liang continuously went through severe persecution and the public security system strictly blocked any information about his situation from getting out. Peng Liang was absolutely not allowed to approach the building in which Dafa practitioners were incarcerated so as to prevent him from contacting them. Once a practitioner’s family members visited an inmate and Peng Liang happened to be on cleaning duty in the reception room. The prison guard immediately asked Peng Liang to leave. Another time, when the water supply was suspended, Peng Liang was carrying a barrel of water for the practitioners imprisoned upstairs. Before he walked a few steps, the police aggressively asked him to put the bucket down and ordered him to return downstairs.

4. Peng Liang’s Sister Peng Yan

• She was illegally arrested and tied to the “board shackles” twice (an instrument of torture exclusively used for the criminals facing the death penalty)

In March 2000, Peng Yan was illegally arrested because she printed the main book of Falun Gong Zhuan Falun and was then imprisoned in Wuhan’s First Female Prison, which later moved to Dongxihu Wujiaxan Erzhigou. That was the second time she was arrested. At the same time, her older brother Peng Min and another Dafa practitioner with the surname Ye were also arrested. The arrest soon became a so-called “authorised arrest.” In China, “authorised arrest” means people can be “legally” detained for a long period of time without a trial.

When Peng Yan was detained in the “First Female Prison”, she was harshly beaten because she refused to take her clothes off for a full body search. Many inmates heard this news. Later she was tied to “board shackles” twice because she refused to promise not to practise Falun Gong in the prison. (“Board shackles” was abolished in 1997. It was an instrument of torture exclusively used for criminals subject to the death penalty. A criminal lies down on a board in the shape of a cross, and his hands and legs are fixed to the board with iron chains. There is a hole on the board beneath the criminal’s buttocks so that stool and urine can be released from the hole.) Peng Yan was tied to the “board shackles” for 39 days.

During the period when she was fastened to the board shackle for the second time, Zhu and Hai (the male chiefs of that female prison) and another chief inspected the cell where she was held. They tried to persuade her into writing a “guarantee statement” so that she could be released from the board shackles. However, Peng Yan refused to give up her belief. Chief Zhu thus instructed a criminal inmate of the cell to beat her on her face with the sole of a slipper. When that criminal inmate was reluctant to do so, Zhu threatened, “If you don’t beat her, I’ll ask someone from another cells to beat you.” The inmate was threatened until she was in tears. Peng Yan couldn’t stand it and said to her, “Go ahead, I won’t blame you.” The inmate was crying while she was hitting Peng Yan. The Prison Chief was incessantly shouting at her until she had been hit several dozen times.

Because she refused to wear a prison uniform and recite the prison regulations, Peng Yan was handcuffed, forced to stand for a long period of time and beaten by warped policeman Liu Lianzhen (This warped policeman was always hostile to Dafa practitioners, frequently tried various novel methods to torture them, and incited other criminal inmates to be hostile to them). On “May 1st”, though Peng Yan was handcuffed, the policemen asked her to do all the work for that day, which was supposed to be shared by every inmate in the prison.

• Orders from above: Use hard and soft approaches to transform her by hook or by crook

In March 2000, Peng Yan was jailed in the First Prison in Wuhan City after being illegally sentenced to three years. At the time she was aged twenty two. At the end of July 2001, she was transferred to the knitting brigade of Wuhan Female Prison. Since her older brother Peng Min and her mother Li Yingxiu had been tortured to death by the police in Hubei Province and news had reached outside of China, the evil political regime were desperate to cover up their atrocities and cut sources of evidence for the International Court of Justice. They used every possible measure to transform Peng Yan. According to a prison guard, their superiors ordered that Peng Yan must be “transformed” within a short period of time.

From detention centre to prison, Peng Yan suffered tremendous hardship for about three years but never gave in; corporal punishment didn’t work on her any more. As a result, the prison exclusively set up a so-called “learning class” in a building which was originally used as a dining room and bedroom for inmates. The prison guards who were experienced in persecuting Dafa practitioners were deployed to this class from other brigades. They included both men and women, and totalled over ten people. If other inmates were included, the total number in the class added up to more than twenty people. In this so-called “learning class,” the wicked policemen used a hypocritical method, which was a so-called “soft approach”. They lived and ate with Peng Yan. Everyone was served with nice food and had a comfortable place to sleep. In her daily life, Peng Yan was taken care of as if she was a baby. All the prison guards and department chiefs took turns to “transform” her. A member of the prison’s administration board, Han Hanyun, even regarded Peng Yan as his nominal daughter, and a video showed that he hugged Peng Yan in public and said, “You are the most disobedient daughter of mine.” Furthermore, he promised to solve her family problems and help her find a job after she was discharged from the prison. On the other hand, some guards from the “610 Office” in Wuhan City and some hooligans from outside to the prison were sent to collude with people from outside the prison and find information to deal with Peng Yan. The most vicious approach was that if Peng Yan was not “transformed” all the prison guards participating in the class would not be allowed to go home. This lasted more than 20 days and they took advantage of Peng Yan’s compassionate nature to impose tremendous spiritual pressure on her. When Peng Yan compromised with them, all the prison guards were very excited and hugged one another in tears. However, although it was shameful, they used the related video as propaganda materials to deceive the world.

5. Peng Liang’s father Peng Weisheng

Because he appealed for Falun Gong in Beijing, Peng Weisheng was brainwashed for eighteen months in the 2nd Brigade of Hewan Forced Labour Camp in Wuhan City. Peng Weisheng was supposed to be released on April 28 2001 but his jail term was extended six months because he refused to give up practising Falun Gong. When the six months extension expired, he was still not released. Instead, his jail term was extended for another three months. In January 2002, he was directly transferred to the “610 Brainwashing Centre” near the Yujiatou riverbank of Wuchang District in Wuhan City. The Chief of the brainwashing centre announced in public, “Without compromise, he will be imprisoned indefinitely.”

* The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

** "Guarantee Statement" is a statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

You can read "Deputy Chief of Public Security for Hubei Province in China, Zhao Zhifei, Faces Another Lawsuit (Part I)" at http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200401/16991.html