Two Incidents of Policeman Wei Wei's Torture of Practitioner Mr. Zhou Xiangyang in Tianjin City

Mr. Zhou Xiangyang, 32, of Tianjin City, was an engineer in the 3rd Surveillance and Design Division of the Railway Department. At the beginning of 2000, he was sent to the Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin for one and a half years. Then his term was extended for another year for no apparent reason and he was transferred to the Ji County Yushan Forced Labour Camp. When the additional one-year term ended, he was sent to the Jianxin Forced Labour Camp. Later on he was released due to the poor state of his health. On May 31st 2003, he was arrested again, put in the Hexi District Jail, and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was sent to Gangbei Prison on August 9th 2004.

Below is a description of two incidents of prison policeman Wei Wei in Tianjin City torturing Mr. Zhou Xiangyang:

Prison policeman Wei Wei, around 27 years old was a resident of Ji County, Tianjin City, Between 1999 and 2000, he was a policeman in the Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin. He was later transferred to the Yushan Forced Labour Camp in Ji County.

In the autumn of 2000, Wei Wei brought Zhou to a secret room in the Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp in order to beat him to force him to give up Falun Gong. Wei punched Mr. Zhou, knocked him to the ground, and asked him, "Do you still want to practise?" Mr. Zhou slowly stood up and then stared at Wei but did not answer. Wei yelled, "Nobody in this camp is not afraid of me," and began to punch and kick Zhou again. He knocked Zhou, whose face was all bleeding, to the ground, and asked him again, "Do you still want to practise?"

Zhou picked himself up slowly again and did not answer. Seeing that Mr. Zhou was undaunted, Wei madly slapped his face, until it was distorted, and knocked him to the ground again. After a short while, Mr. Zhou slowly got up again. Wei slapped him again. Mr. Zhou fell, but rose again. Wei screamed like mad, "I am going to beat you to death today!"

Wei picked up a big wooden baton and beat Mr. Zhou. This time, Mr. Zhou was knocked unconscious and fell to the ground. After a while he started to twitch. The twitches lasted for a while. He gradually regained consciousness, and struggled to stand up.

This time, Wei yelled, "Wait. You win, but please let me leave first before you stand up." He then took off in a hurry.

In the autumn of 2001, after being detained in the Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin City for one and a half years, Mr. Zhou was taken to the Ji County Yushan Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin for a one-year extension. He was put in Team I where prison guard Wei Wei was a policeman. The director of the team Li Zhang directed Wei to torture Zhou with electric batons to force him to give up Falun Gong.

Wei ordered the inmates to hold Zhou to the ground in the team warehouse, with his face up. Several inmates then held his hands, arms, feet and legs firm, while Wei used the electric baton to shock Zhou's mouth until his lips became swollen. Mr. Zhou said slowly, "You beat me up when we were at Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp. Now you torture me again. You will receive due retribution for what you do." Wei said, "Whatever Director Li said goes. If we beat you to death, we'll just say that you committed suicide and bury you in the back of the hills."

Wei then turned Zhou's body face down, and shocked the back of his head, causing blisters to form and his scalp to burn. As the electric shocks continued, suddenly the electric baton burned out, while Mr. Zhou lost consciousness at the same time.

After the torture, Mr. Zhou declared that he was going on a hunger strike in protest. Once in the dinning hall, when everyone was seated, Wei said, "Did I tell you to sit? Stand up all of you, except for Zhou Xiangyang. I admire people who are not afraid to die." Wei then asked Zhou, "Tell me the truth, don't you want to eat when you see others enjoying their meals?" Mr. Zhou said, "I am not telling you anything."

Mr. Zhou was force-fed every day. In August 2002, when he was transferred to the Jianxin Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin, he was a mere skeleton. He told people, "I will not commit suicide, but I am using a hunger strike to protest their persecution."

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/8/29/109375.html