An Appeal to the Prosecutor's Office from Zhang Beiqi, Who Was Disabled by Torture in Detention Centre

Supreme Prosecutor's Office:

My name is Zhang Beiqi. I'm a resident of Mingyue Town, Antu County, Jilin Province. I am currently held at the Antu Detention Centre. People from the Security Division of the Antu Police Department tortured me severely during their interrogations, which caused paralysis in my lower legs. I felt dizzy and extreme pain and couldn't take care of myself. I have to depend on others and have to lie down at the detention centre day and night, and live a life not fit for a human.

This letter is intended to appeal my situation to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office and all related persons in authority. It relates how I was disabled from brutal tortures administered by Jin Zhenshan of the Security Division of the Antu County Police Department, Tan Guangming from the Haigou Gold Mine Police Branch, and police officers Luo Chengwen and Xiao Cui during their interrogation of me.

On March 20, 2004, more than ten people all from the Security Division of Antu County, and the "110" police officers Luo Chengwen and Xiao Cui, and Tan Guangming from the Haigou Gold Mine Police Branch began to brutally torture me. The torture lasted seven days and seven nights. I was detained in a room on the second floor at the Haigou Police Branch. With two people as a team, they took turns interrogating me 24 hours a day. They put me on the torture device called the "Tiger Bench." My hands were shackled to the "Tiger Bench," and I was forced to sit straight up, tied up at the waist with a rope that made it impossible for me to bend my body. I was forbidden to close my eyes. They verbally abused and beat me and pulled my hair.

On March 21, police beat and kicked me brutally. Luo Chengwen pulled my hair, which made my scalp swell and my hair fall out all over the ground. In the afternoon, Tan Guangming from the Haigou Police Branch opened my handcuffs and shackles and ordered me to get up from the "Tiger Bench." I was then ordered to stand half squatting, with my legs apart and both arms raised forward, parallel to the ground. I refused to do so. Tan beat me viciously on the head with a rubber police club, and beat my legs and feet and other parts of my body, giving me many large bruises on my head. My eyes were covered with bruises. My lower legs were swollen with dark bruises all over them. My whole body seemed paralyzed and I was unable to stand. I lost consciousness. While beating me, Tan Guangming also said to me that he had been a hoodlum in Yanji City. He specialized in beating people and beating them the hardest. He said that if I refused to renounce Falun Gong and to give them the information they were after, he would make me suffer so much that living would be worse than death.

Tan Guangming beat me for almost one hour. I told him he should not brutally torture me like this since I neither had any grudge against him nor had I committed any crimes. He kept beating more viciously, though, and would not stop even after my calves were covered with black bruises. I told Tan that if my legs became disabled, I would sue him along with the police department, the prosecutor's office or the People's Congress for the crime of torture during the interrogation. He said, "Who saw me beat you? Do you have any evidence? You can ask others here. Who sees me beating you?" I lost consciousness during the beating. After I woke up, Tan Guangming forced me to sit on the "Tiger Bench," with both legs crossed.

On March 22, Luo Chengwen and Xiao Cui saw that my legs were stiff and swollen. Luo said that he was going to "treat me." He found a stool and forcibly dragged my legs onto the stool, which gave me much pain. Luo used his hands to beat my legs and I passed out from the extreme pain. When I woke up I told him that he should not treat good people like this. He scolded, "If you keep talking, I will beat you until you are crippled."

In the afternoon, Tan Guangming, Yu Xue and Jin Zhenshan started to torture me again. Jin lighted up two cigarettes and inserted them into my nose. My tears kept flowing and my nose started running. I felt dizzy and was unable to breathe. Jin took a wooden stick and beat me on my head. The bruise on my head from previous tortures hadn't recovered yet. The new beating on top of the old injuries caused me unbearable pain. The three kept kicking and boxing me all over my body. I was beaten down to the ground from the "Tiger Bench." They still didn't stop. I lost consciousness again.

On March 23, police took turns to torture me, pulling my hair or rubbing my temples. When I lost consciousness during the beating, they would pour water on me to wake me up. My hair was all over the ground. My scalp was swollen and my temples hurt.

March 24 was the fifth day that they tortured me continually. My eyes were swollen terribly and kept tearing. They would kick my lower legs if my eyes were closed even for a moment. I continued to feel my legs swelling and in extreme pain. At 11:00 p.m., Jin Zhenshan and another person started another round of torture. Jin held a one-meter-long wooden stick (about three feet) and beat me brutally on my neck, feet, legs, eyes, mouth and the top of my head. My head once again was bleeding from the beating. Jin lit the cigarettes again and inserted them into my nostrils. The smoke made me choke and I passed out again. Jin continued beating me with the wooden stick and kicked me with his leather shoes on my lower legs for over two hours. While he was beating me, he kept scolding, "I could make a dead person talk. There are a lot of methods and there is a lot of time. We can play every day like this." I told him, "I haven't done anything. My purpose for practising Falun Gong is to be a good person. Is it wrong to be a good person?" He beat me on my mouth. I said, "You tortured me in order to get my confession. You violate the law while executing law. I will sue you." Jin said to me, "How can you win? You don't have any evidence or witnesses. Who would testify for you? You are better off to say whatever we tell you to. It is impossible not to say anything. Otherwise we will not stop beating you." He beat me harder and harder. I was beaten to the point of being close to death and lost consciousness again.

Faced with such unbelievably barbaric torture during the interrogation, I said what they wanted and asked for. That was my so-called confession for the criminal records.

On March 26, Shen Jingzhu, Tan Guangming and Yu Xue were looking for a doctor to give me an intravenous infusion. I was at the brink of death and they were afraid to explain the cause of death if I died. Luo Chengwen wanted to beat me again. Shen Jingzhu told him, "No more beating."

On March 27 they were looking for a doctor again to give me an infusion. My whole body did not have any good skin left and was swollen. My legs were paralyzed. I couldn't see clearly. My body and my head had lost sensation. In the afternoon, Shen Jingzhu, Yu Xue and others sent me back to the Antu Detention Centre from the Haigou Police Branch around 5:00 p.m. The staff on duty at the detention center refused to accept me since I was at death's door. They were afraid to take responsibility and had to inform the head of the bureau. Yu Xue dragged or carried me to a cell in the detention centre.

There were more than 20 inmates in the cell who witnessed my situation. My whole body was swollen and I was unconscious. My legs are still paralyzed, even now. I had bladder incontinence and only had a bowel movement once a month. I could not lie down in the cell and was unable to sit. Five months passed. No one has asked about my circumstances. Sometimes I am unconscious from the extreme pain; sometimes I ask to have medical treatment but no one responds to me.

I have talked about my situation with the local prosecutor's office employees in the liaison office in the detention centre. They just took a report but no one has done anything to help. Since I do not have money, the detention centre refused to provide me any medical treatment. Therefore, I am struggling every day, more dead than alive. During this period I even received the arrest document from the prosecutor's office while I was in a coma. Now my case is being sent to the court and they are going to sentence me, based on the confession police officer Jin Zhenshan and others had extorted from me under brutal torture.

I hope you will give me a rightful judgment and provide me urgent medical treatment for my injuries. I hope the Supreme Prosecutor's Office upholds the dignity of the law, executes the law in justice and returns my freedom.

Appellant: Zhang Beiqi

October 3, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/10/4/85752.html