Elderly Mr. Zhao Dianbin from Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous, Region Died as a Result of Persecution

Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Zhao Dianbin, 78 years old, was from Chifeng City, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (AR). He went to Beijing three times to appeal for justice for Dafa and was brutally tortured and detained twice. His three sons, three daughters-in-law, and three daughters were all arrested and ruthlessly tortured. Mr. Zhao died on March 20th, 2007, due to the long-term harassment and persecution by personnel from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Zhao Dianbin was originally from the Songshan District of Chifeng City. He used to suffer from various illnesses such as asthma and heart disease caused by lung disorders. His annual medical costs were the highest at his place of employment. Mr. Zhao started to practise Falun Dafa in 1996 and all his illnesses were cured. His grey hair started to turn black again, and from then on he no longer needed to spend a penny on medicine.

In July 1999, the CCP and Jiang Zemin's regime started to persecute Falun Dafa. On July 22nd, 1999, several policemen roughly forced Mr. Zhao into a police vehicle when he was practising the Falun Gong exercises in front of Chifeng City Museum. They drove him and other practitioners to a mountain in a far-away Chifeng suburban area. Then they pushed him and the other practitioners out of the vehicle and left. The practitioners had to walk home. On July 23rd, 1999, police chief Liu Qi from the Xitun local police station in the Hongshang District arrested Mr. Zhao at his home. In addition, he went to the workplace of Mr. Zhao's son, Zhao Honghai, and arrested him as well. The policemen forced Mr. Zhao, who is in his 70s, to kneel under the steaming hot sun until he fell over from heat exhaustion. One sympathetic policeman finally let him go home.

In October 1999, Zhao Dianbin went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. The Beijing authorities arrested him and detained him in Huairou County (a Beijing suburb), where CCP personnel threatened Mr. Zhao that they would "execute" him. Even so, he still would not tell them his home address and simply waited for them to kill him [Note: Because of the Chinese Communist Party's practice of implicating and harassing family members and work units of Falun Gong practitioners, practitioners often refuse to give their name and address when they are arrested, in order to protect their families and associates]. One of them later told him that if nobody came to take his body away after he was executed, the man would lose his job. Mr. Zhao felt sorry for him, so he told them whom they should contact to get his body after the execution. These wicked people then took Mr. Zhao to the Chifeng Liaison Office in Beijing and he was taken back to Chifeng. Zheng Hongchao (or Zheng Hongtao) took Mr. Zhao's money out of his pocket.

On October 30th, 2000, CCP personnel from the Hongshan District suddenly arrived at Mr. Zhao's residence to search it and confiscate his personal belongings. They arrested him, his wife Zou Reihuan, his son Zhao Hongyang; and daughter-in-law Zhao Chunfeng. All of them were later cruelly tortured. Policeman Yang Liping and another officer used barbaric methods to torture the over 70-year-old Zhao Dianbin. They used electric shocks and brutal beatings. In addition, they handcuffed him and then tightened the cuffs until he passed out. They then fabricated an oral confession and pressed his fingerprint on the paper while he was unconscious. After that, they used this falsified oral confession to threaten Mr. Zhao's daughter, Zhao Shuzhen, who worked in Beijing. The police claimed that Mr. Zhao testified that Zhao Shuzhen had participated in the "October 15th" city-wide posting of leaflets exposing the persecution, a well-known trumped-up case in Chifeng. This case provided false testimony for the notorious officials Bu Ren and others, who used it as their justification to torture Zhao Hongyang, Zhao Chunfeng, and Zou Ruihuan.

CCP personnel in Chifeng detained Mr. Zhao, who was full of cuts and bruises, in the Hongshan District Detention Centre. They took away the 220 yuan he had on him and also extorted 6,000 yuan¹ more from him. Officer Yang Liping would not issue him a receipt.

At the meantime, they spread lies that the "October 15th" activity had been organised by Ms. Zhao Shuzhen, and gathered over a dozen police officers to go to Beijing to arrest her. They claimed that they had solved an important case. The officers and Chifeng TV Station videotaped Ms. Zhao Shuzhen, and broadcast it on the Inner Mongolia AR TV Station channel. They broadcast information on Ms. Zhao's whole family and her relatives. In addition, they asked her to comment on the "self-immolation" case. Ms. Zhao said, "Dafa practitioners do not kill any animals, not to mention a human being. The process and results of the self-immolation, and what was said were full of conflicts and loopholes. It is obvious that the self-immolation was fabricated." She sternly resisted the fabrication and persecution, and explained that she was working in Beijing during that time. She said she was working in the same kitchen as her neighbour at the time and requested an official investigation. However, the authorities from the Public Security and the Investigation and Legal Bureaus of the Hongshan District in Chifeng totally ignored her request, and the Hongshan District Court sentenced Ms. Zhao to three years of imprisonment, and locked her up in the First Women's Prison in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia AR.

Since the persecution started eight years ago, Mr. Zhao Dianbin had been brutally tortured twice and detained. His sons, daughter-in-laws, and daughters had all been arrested, tortured, detained, forced to do hard labour, and imprisoned. He and his wife had both been devastated mentally and physically. When his son, Zhao Honghai, became destitute and homeless to avoid being further persecuted, his young son was left alone, so Mr. Zhao had to take his grandson to and from school on his bike. During that time, they had two accidents, but he did not ask the others involved in the accidents for payment. They stayed at home until they recovered on their own.

In May 2005, officials from the Hongshan District suddenly broke into Zhao Honghai's residence. They confiscated the recordings of Dafa lectures. In October 2006, they suddenly broke into Zhao Dianbin's residence and took away the family's inherited silver.

In addition, Yin Shouming from Tienan Police Station in the Hongshan District, Xu Caiyun from the Residential Committee, and Ma and Zou Jinglin from the Street Administration Office went to Mr. Zhao's home repeatedly, trying to drive him out of their jurisdiction. They came day and night to threaten him. They pounded on the door, and yelled wildly. His neighbours were horrified. Zhao Dianbin started to have symptoms of a hernia. In 2005 and 2006, he twice had symptoms of a stroke. After the first one, he could not move or talk for two hours, then everything returned to normal. The second time, he recovered fully in five days.

Mr. Zhao Dianbin had been harassed by CCP personnel for a long time. His entire family had suffered from various degrees of persecution. As a result of the relentless persecution, Mr. Zhao passed away on March 20th, 2007.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/4/3/152069.html