Mr. Sun Yaoting Sentenced to Xinmi Men's Prison in Henan Province

Mr. Sun Yaoting is a Falun Dafa practitioner from Yanshi City in the Luoyang area of Henan Province. On May 8th, 2007, he was secretly sent to Xinmi Men's Prison without his family being notified. The prison refused to take him since he could hardly breathe or walk. Only then did the authorities call his family. His relatives were ordered to pay for a physical examination. A medical parole would be arranged through the courthouse if he was too sick, but he would be sent to Xinmi Men's Prison if his condition was not that bad. His family didn't have the money to pay for the exam, so the Yanshi City Political & Judiciary Committee found several so-called experts to examine him. They reported that his tuberculosis was negative and not contagious. On June 13th, 2007, Sun was sent to Xinmi Men's Prison. He had to be carried into the prison.

Mr. Sun Yaoting lived in Sunpo Village in Houshi Township, Yanshi City. Previously, on December 23rd, 2006, he was detained at the Yanshi Detention Centre, where he was brutally tortured. He was spitting up blood and phlegm, was short of breath, and had severe chest pain when he tried to breathe. He had x-rays taken three times and body fluid tests at the Yanshi People's Hospital. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed him with tuberculosis. The third x-ray showed a hole in his lung. Sun Yaoting coughs up bloody phlegm to this day.

The following describes how Sun Yaoting was persecuted from 2000 through 2004.

It was learned recently that Sun Yaoting was not sentenced in a courthouse. Three people took him to a small room in the detention centre where they told him he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. Sun Yaoting said, "Falun Dafa is good." They then added one more year to his sentence. Just like that, he was sentenced to five years of imprisonment without any legal formalities.

Sun Yaoting started practising Falun Gong in November 1997. He benefited greatly from it, both physically and spiritually. After the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20th, 1999, he and other practitioners started appealing for justice for Falun Gong. In June 2000, they went to Tiananmen Square and held up a banner reading, "Falun Dafa Is Righteous." Shortly afterwards, police officers came and forced them into a police car. At the police station they were severely beaten. Zhao Zhende, secretary of the Communist Party committee of Houshi Town, Yanshi City, along with several other people went to Beijing to bring back him and others. They took the practitioners to a hotel room and savagely beat them. Xiao Yingxi hit Mr. Sun in the eye with a full plastic drink bottle causing his eye to immediately turn red, bleed and swell.

On July 2nd, 2000, Sun Yaoting and other practitioners were taken to the local police station. Officials and policemen there mercilessly beat them. They pushed Mr. Sun to the ground, hit and kicked him, whipped him with a rope and knocked his front teeth loose. The practitioners were tied up and tied to each other. Signs were hung around their necks, and they were paraded through the streets of three villages. The police wrote on a big sign and put it on the car. It listed the names of the practitioners and a threat, "Anyone who practises Falun Gong will have their family destroyed and will die without an heir." A loudspeaker was used to repeat this threat and to slander Dafa.

Mr. Sun was barely conscious after being forced to parade through the streets of three villages. He couldn't stand still and was ready to fall even when he leaned against a wall at the police station. He couldn't urinate. He had to hold his lower abdomen in with both hands to force thick blood clots out. The police station officials became afraid of the consequences and sent him to the Yanshi City Police Department's Political and Judiciary Committee. A medical examination showed that he had a severely bruised kidney. Even this ill, he was sent to Yanshi City Detention Centre ten days later.

At the detention centre, a guard with the last name of Liu asked Sun Yaoting whether he still wanted to practise Falun Gong. Sun Yaoting said, "Of course." There was no hesitation The guard asked the cell trustee to place gravel on the floor and force Sun Yao to his knees. The guard also told the cell trustee to "give Sun some special treatment" (that was, to beat him). Sun was beaten by several of his cell-mates.

Guards forced Sun Yaoting to work for several nights straight. He was not allowed to lie down or sleep. He was forced to stand continuously for several hours. During the day, he had to do weaving and other work. At night, he had to work putting bulbs into coloured lanterns. He was given only minimal food. His hands were covered with blisters. If he slowed down just a bit, he was beaten. One time the guards instigated other inmates to beat him. They used the handles of pliers to poke holes in his clothes and left two holes in his back. He was not allowed to use the toilet for 15 days.

There are no policies, no laws, no human rights, and no religious freedoms to protect Falun Gong practitioners in China. Practitioners are asked to tell lies and are persecuted for speaking the truth. Yang Auxin, from the Political and Judiciary Committee, once asked Sun Yaoting, "Will you continue practising Falun Gong? If you say 'No,' we'll let you go home. Otherwise, we'll sentence you to three years of forced labour." Sun Yaoting said, "I'll continue practising Falun Gong." Consequently, he was sentenced to three years of forced labour.

Sun Yaoting was sent to Wugulu Forced Labour Camp. There, he was assigned to the Second Division, nicknamed "The Evil Division." A guard there named Hu Haiwang didn't want him to study the Falun Dafa teachings. He searched everywhere for any Falun Dafa lectures. He even tore open Sun Yaoting's mattress, but still didn't find anything.

There is a brick factory at the Second Division. There was no freedom at the factory. Inmates were forced to work all day long. They were not allowed to sit and catch their breath, let alone sit on the ground to rest. They started work early in the morning and were beaten if they couldn't finish the work quota for the day. It was already late at night when they finished working each day.

One day in September 2001, Sun Yaoting and several other practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and didn't work. Hu Haiwang told them that he had received approval from the head and Party secretary of the detention centre to use torture on practitioners who protested. Practitioners were first handcuffed to trees in the wild. They were then tied up very tightly with thin ropes and were handcuffed behind their backs 30 minutes later. Sun Yaoting could not feel his thumbs for the next three months, because they were numb as a result of the torture.

On a very cold night in the winter of 2001, a practitioner gave Sun Yaoting a brochure exposing the persecution. Sun Yaoting was reading it when inmate Zhang Jie woke to use the toilet and caught him. Zhang Jie was assigned to monitor Sun Yaoting. He used his shoes to hit Mr. Sun in the head for quite some time. Then he pulled Sun Yaoting out of his bed and savagely beat him. Zhang Jie was not criticised by the detention centre authorities. Instead, his prison term was reduced.

Practitioners at the Second Division were forced to work over 12 hours every day without a rest. At the brick factory, they were to put clay on carts, pull those carts to the furnace, and put the clay into the furnace. They had to walk over several dozen kilometres (1 kilometre=0.6 miles) each day, and were required to pull at least 35 carts each day. Each cart had to have at least 200 bricks and they weighed over 1000 Jins (about 1000 pounds).

Mr. Sun Yaoting was assigned to the embroidery division in July 2002. Guards ordered inmates to monitor him. They followed him everywhere he went and didn't allow him to talk to other practitioners or practice the Falun Gong exercises. The guards instigated the monitoring inmates to beat him whenever he shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" They tried to cover his mouth, which caused it to bleed.

On November 20th, 2002, the detention centre officials received a secret message from their superiors. It was orders to launch another round of forced "transformations¹." The detention centre held a meeting to threaten practitioners. Sun Yaoting was assigned to the basic team. He had to work all day and was not allowed to sleep at night. He was repeatedly told that if he wrote the three statements² they would let him sleep. They pushed him around and verbally abused him for hours. The next day he was forced to sit through brainwashing sessions. He refused to do any work, in protest of the persecution, so the authorities used electric batons and ropes to force him to pull the bricks.

Mr. Sun returned home in April 2003. His wife told him that the authorities had come and stolen all their belongings after they put him in the detention centre, and that they were quite vicious. They took their tricycle, motorcycle, TV, sewing machine, sofa, writing desk, weights, table clock, and other things. Party secretary Sun said, "The town authorities asked us to fine you 5,000 yuan³. If you don't give us the money, we'll bulldoze your house down." He took the money from Sun Yaoting's relatives and gave them a receipt which said, "Fine of 5,000 yuan for practising Falun Gong."

On the afternoon of April 26th, 2004, Sun Yaoting was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution in Koudian Township, Yanshi City, when about four policemen arrested him. They took him to the Yanshi City Police Department Political and Judiciary Committee, where he was brutally beaten and injured. Yang Juxin, deputy head of the Political and Judiciary Committee, slapped him. Zhang Rundong, Zhang Changbing, and others hit, kicked, and stomped on his chest and abdominal areas. Sun Yaoting was unconscious for over two hours.

A doctor's examination showed that Sun Yaoting's internal organs were damaged as a result of the ruthless beating. He had difficulty breathing and was on the verge of death. He was later taken to Yanshi City Detention Centre. They started force-feeding him and questioned him every day, trying to find out the sources of the leaflets.

Note

1. "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")

2. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

3. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/7/14/158815.html