The Torture that Led to the Death of Mr. Cui Zhilin in Jinzhou City Prison in Liaoning Province

Dafa practitioner Cui Zhilin from Fuxin City, Liaoning Province was arrested by the city's 610 Office¹ on September 18th, 2002 and was sentenced to eleven years of imprisonment. He was imprisoned and persecuted in Jinzhou City's Nanshan Prison. On August 4th, 2004, he died as a result of the persecution at the age of forty-three. The next day, his family was notified that he "committed suicide by jumping from a building."

His family found that he had been beaten so badly that his body was too horrible to look at. His body was as thin as a skeleton. His ears, his nose, and his mouth were all stuffed with cotton balls, and there was a hole in the back of his head. One section of the gums in his mouth had become rotten. The whole back of his body was covered with large black and blue patches. There were clear marks of long-lasting electrical shocks on both of his underarms, both sides of the chest, hips, the inner sides of his legs, the whole area below the knees, and especially the area around the ankles. One piece of flesh on his elbow had fallen off. His testicles were swollen and black and blue, and it was obvious that his body had been soaked and cleaned in medical liquid or water. The prison officials threatened his family, and tried every possible means to stop them from taking photos of the body.

The following is what an insider described of the torture that Cui Zhilin suffered during the few days before his death in the fifth prison district, Jinzhou City Prison.

At 7:30 p.m., July 27th, 2004, Liu Jiandong, the head of the squadron, called Cui Zhilin to the office upstairs and held a "study class" to brainwash him, and tried to force him to "confess". The persons mainly responsible are Li Xiuping, the head of the prison district, and Liu Jiandong, etc.

From July 27th to August 4th, prison guards deprived Mr. Cui of sleep. Whenever he fell asleep, the guards would poke him. They forced him to watch again and again the so-called "educational movies" that slander Falun Gong and force Falun Gong practitioner to give up their faith. They handcuffed him to a specially-made iron chair, cruelly beat him, and tortured him.

For the first four days, it was the prison guards who were monitoring him in pairs every shift. Later, the prison guards could not sustain it any longer, and they had to get four criminals to continue to monitor him. Two criminals monitored him during the daytime, and the other two at night. Li Xiuping got these four criminals and told them that two of them would be "cited for achievement" if Mr. Cui "confessed" during their shift. The four criminals are Wu Bin, Xue Linming, Zhang Yongzhe, and Zhang Wanjiang. Although it was summertime, they withheld drinking water from Mr. Cui minimise his need to use the toilet. To drink water, Mr. Cui had to ask the prison guard for permission. Each of his three daily meals was also reduced to half the regular amount. They beat him and did not allow him to sleep. Those who worked downstairs every day could hear the noises from upstairs of people beating, swearing, and shocking him with electrical batons in order to force him to "confess".

On the afternoon of August 4th, 2004, Cui Zhilin died. Prison officials claimed that at 4:10 p.m., Mr. Cui "committed suicide by jumping from the office (which was on the second floor) of Liu Xiuping, the head of fifth imprisoning district."

On August 5th, the day after the death of Cui Zhilin, the prison officials held a meeting with 153 criminals, who were all criminals imprisoned in the fifth imprisoning district. Wei Xiaoming, the official from (and who is now the head of) the Section of Surveillance and Re-education through Labour said:

"We did not want the thing that happened yesterday to happen. But since it happened, we have to face it. Now I'm going to pass to you the direction and requirements of the prison. If leaders from Procuratorate or Prison Management Bureau come to investigate, whichever criminal who is questioned shall answer that you are not clear about it or you were not at the scene. You should not say that Cui Zhilin was brought upstairs for reflection, you should not say that he was not allowed to sleep for eight days or that he was physically punished, and you should not say that some criminals participated in this case. When asked, you should only answer that at sometime after 8:30 a.m. on August 4th, the head of the squadron asked Cui Zhilin to go to upstairs for the purpose of education. Later, Cui Zhilin took things too seriously and committed suicide by jumping from a building. Anybody who talks about what should not be discussed will be held responsible for the consequences."

On August 6th, when Mr. Cui's family went to the fifth prison district, all of the criminals were sent back to their rooms, and none of them were allowed to be present at the workshop.

Xie Li, a criminal in the fifth prison district, wrote some letters to the Procuratorate and Prison Discipline Committee about several prison guards. He wrote that these guards treated human life as if it were not worth a straw, that they beat, swore at, and physically abused 32 inmates, that they accepted money and things from other criminals, and that they conducted deals for "money and power." The prison immediately transferred Xie Liu from the fifth prison district to another district and took revenge against him by imprisoning and severely disciplining him for 80 days, which included torture. Xie Li was entitled to have his term reduced, but the prison authorities would not do so. The prison guards often made trouble for him. Although he worked the same as other criminals, the "re-education achievement" he gained was different. The prison guards told him, "You wanna report this? Go ahead, we are not afraid." Now he is being severely tortured by prison guards. The above are some inhuman things that have happened in Jinzhou City Prison in Liaoning Province.

Related article:

http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200409/21900.html

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/1/3/146062.html