610 Office of Laizhou City, Shandong Province and State Security Unit Police Persecute Practitioner Ms. Zhang Chengfang

On April 18th, 2003, Ms. Zhang Chengfang was arrested and sent to a detention centre. For three straight days, the prison guards brutally tortured her during the day and deprived her of sleep during the night.

Ms. Zhang's hands were cuffed together with one arm over the shoulder and another behind her back. To inflict more pain, the guards would continuously pull her arms up while her hands were still cuffed. The perpetrators who tortured Ms. Zhang include Yu Zhiping, Shi Bintao, Wang Yongguang, Liu Weibin and two female prison guards. They were led by former 610 Office¹ Directors Wang Zenwen and Liu Jinbin.

The guards tormented Ms. Zhang until she passed out and white foam came out of her mouth. Only then would they release the handcuff. However, when she regained consciousness, they would cuff her hands again. They repeatedly tortured her this way until they got tired. After that, the prison guards surrounded Ms. Zhang and pushed her in all directions as though she was a human ball. They laughed maliciously as they tortured Ms. Zhang in this way.

Yu Zhiping stepped on Ms. Zhang's head with his boot and poked her neck with a needle. He grabbed her hair and pulled her head forward and upward, pulling out some of her hair. He also used a small bamboo stick to force her eyelids open. He was laughing hard as he tormented her.

When another guard came in, one of them told him, "You should have came earlier to see all the fun. I was laughing so hard."

Shi Bintao slapped Ms. Zhang's face with Dafa books. As he was slapping her, he murmured profanities.

When the guards were tired of torturing Ms.Zhang, they forced her to squat down. Her feet had to line up or they would kick and hit her.

On the morning of the third day, the prison guards started to torture Ms. Zhang again. Ju Zhiping threw a long rope at Ms. Zhang and threatened that he would strangle her by saying, "After I strangle you, we will say that you committed suicide."

Besides being tortured during the day, Ms. Zhang was also forced to do hard labour. At night, she had to so-called "stand guard" and could not sleep. She was also not allowed to do the Falun Gong exercises or to speak to anyone. As a result, Ms. Zhang's health deteriorated. The police were afraid that she would die at the detention centre, so they sent her to the hospital. Even when she was put into the car, the prison doctor, Wu Huimei, slapped Ms. Zhang's face and said, "She will pay for everything- the car, our salary, and all other expenses. I have my way."

The police not only tortured practitioners, they also extorted money from the practitioners and their family. The day when Ms. Zhang was arrested, she had three 100 yuan² bills in her pocket. There were only two bills left when she examined her clothes at the detention centre. Later, the police extorted 20,000 yuan from her older son and 4,000 yuan from her younger son before they released her. Also, when Ms. Zhang was interrogated, Wang Zenwen asked, "Where is your bank book?" because they did not find her bank book or cash when they searched Ms. Zhang's home.

On the day Ms. Zhang was released from the detention centre, Wu Huimei closed her account and kept all the money in it. In total, Ms. Zhang lost almost 25,000 yuan. The police divided all the money amongst themselves.

The main perpetrators who persecute Falun Gong practitioners in Laizhou City are: 610 Office personnel Sun Yabo, Wang Zenwen and Yuan Luformer; former police bureau director Sun Songjun, Gu Yuping, Xu Haisheng, Yang Xiandi, and Zhang Lianlei. Under the direction of the 610 Office, the police from the township police stations and other smaller police stations often break into and ransack practitioners' homes. They also detain practitioners, send them to a forced labour camp, sentence them to prison, or taken them to brainwashing centres. They brutally persecute those who follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.

In 2001, Wang Zenwen, former Head of the 610 Office, arrested a 50-year-old female practitioner and locked her to the Death Bed³ for 25 consecutive days. When he was at the Dianzi Brainwashing Centre, he kept the money that was extorted from practitioners. Prison guards Liu Weibin and Yang Dianxin, and former director of Yidao Police Station Jia Dianliang extorted 3,000 to 5,000 yuan from each of the 40 practitioners detained in the Dianzi brainwashing centre. Receipts were not given.

At around the beginning of 2001, prison doctor Wu Huimei (female) from Laizhou City Detention Centre used electric batons to shock at least three female practitioners, including Liu Hongying and Liu Wenxiang. One practitioner had blisters all over the right side of her face.

Note

1. "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.

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

3. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/11/24/143127.html