Cases of Falun Dafa Practitioners Being Persecuted in Tieli City, Heilongjiang Province

Since April 2005, the police in Tieli City, Heilongjiang Province have been indiscriminately arresting Falun Dafa practitioners and ransacking their homes. Over ten practitioners were arrested. The following describes the situation in which these practitioners are being persecuted with great effort by multiple parties.

Liu Hongtu: On September 25th, 2005, Fan Guojun, director of the 610 Office¹ of the Tieli City Police Station in Heilongjiang Province, colluded with policeman Zhu Hong as more than ten people plotted to send Falun Dafa practitioner Liu Hongtu to the First Detention Centre of Tieli City. Practitioner Liu Hongtu, a taxi driver, suffered brutal torture in the detention centre. In March 2006, Liu Hongtu was sentenced to five years in prison. On June 1st, 2006, he was transferred to Hulan Prison in Heilongjiang Province, where he continuously suffered persecution. Prisoners Wang Dengming, Zheng Taiping and others forcibly tried to "transform²" Falun Dafa practitioners after being incited and instigated by the prison guards. The practitioners were forced to stand for long periods of time as physical punishment. Perpetrators used plastic tubes to whip the head, back and legs of the practitioners. They also threatened, "You'll be beaten every day if you don't yield." They also used other base methods to deceive and confuse Dafa practitioners. In July 2006, Liu Hongtu was transferred to Daqing Prison.

Sun Yuemin was forcibly arrested at home on September 30th, 2005 by police officers Ma Zhansheng and Su Biao, from the Dong Gang Police Substation of Tieli City. His home was ransacked as well. Tieli City police secretly took Sun Yuemin and detained him in a special room at the First Detention Centre of Tieli City to interrogate him with torture. He was forced to wear a torture instrument called "big branch stick" that weights 44 lbs, is 50 centimetres long and 2 inches wide, and has steel rings on both sides. They beat practitioner Sun Yuemin and constantly cursed him, "We'll beat you to death if you don't talk..." When they saw it was not taking effect, they switched to more malicious persecution methods. The police tied his legs together with ropes, and his hands were handcuffed behind his back. He was sitting in a large metal chair, with both hands lifted from behind and suspended from the chair back. Afterwards, two other policemen stretched the ropes that tied his legs. At this time his body was hanging in the air. From behind, a police officer pressed on his shoulders ferociously, causing excruciating pain. This is one of the methods that authorities commonly use to torture Falun Dafa practitioners. After the torture, they sent Sun Yuemin to the detention centre. In January 2006 Sun Yuemin was sentenced to 3.5 years of prison. On June 1st, 2006, he was transferred to Hulan Prison, in Heilongjiang Province. This place is one of the devil's lairs that is used to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. He was forced to stand for long periods of time and forced to get up at 5:00 a.m. every day. Six people were squeezed onto one 2-metre wide bed. He was not allowed to use toilet all day long. This place was nerve-wracking, dark and full of terror.

Zhou Shuhai is also a Falun Dafa practitioner from Tieli City, Heilongjiang Province. He works in the Strategy Research Office of the Yichun City Government. On October 29th, 2005, he was deceived and arrested by police officers Zheng Hongde, Sun Xu from Tieli City Police Station, and policemen Fan Guangjun, and Chen Tie from the Tieli City 610 Office. The police threatened and tortured him with the cruel hanging torture. On April 1st, 2006, Zhou Shuhai was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. In June 2006, he was sent to Hulan Prison in Heilongjiang Province. The guards ordered criminal prisoners Zheng Taiping and Wang Dengming to persecute him. He was forced to stand for long periods of time, deprived of sleep, and whipped with plastic tubes. Guards Wang and Zheng also ordered the newly arrived prisoners to torture him with the method called "push, break off, and dig." He still has a wound one centimetre in size above his left eyebrow. In July 2006, practitioner Zhou Shuhai was transferred to the No. 4 ward of Daqing Prison. Because of the severe injury to both his body and mind, he started to become very thin and had difficulty taking in food. When his family visited him, he was carried by other prisoners to the visitation room. He had become emaciated and his voice was weak. His family received a message saying he had an intestinal obstruction. He could barely take in any food, and had constant diarrhoea. He is in critical condition. Falun Dafa practitioners who see this message, especially practitioners from Tieli area: please contact his family immediately. In the meantime please work with his family to get him out of the prison.

Zhou Shuzhang was arrested by the same group of police described above. His younger brother Zhou Shuhai was arrested on the same day. In the criminal police team and detention centre, he also suffered from the brutal hanging torture. In Hulan Prison, prisoners Zheng Taiping and Wang Dengming beat him and forced him to write a pledge denouncing Falun Dafa. He was forced to stand for long periods of time, whipped with plastic tubes, beaten and kicked. Now he is being persecuted in the third zone of Daqing Prison.

All of the other practitioners were detained in the detention centre except Lu Mei, who was sent to Heilongjiang Women's Prison. Every day they were forced to make match boxes. If they refused, they were handcuffed from behind. The details are not complete at this point.

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. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/5/15/154872.html