Practitioner Mr. Ma Qinghai Severely Tortured at Chifeng Prison, Inner Mongolia

Mr. Ma Qinghai was sentenced to nine years in prison because he told people about the persecution against Falun Dafa. Mr. Ma has been tortured since he was sent to Chifeng Prison on January 12th, 2006.

Mr. Ma was Savagely Force-fed Until He Lost Consciousness

The day Mr. Ma entered the Chifeng Prison, he refused to wear prison clothes [Editor's note: because Falun Gong practitioners are not guilty of any crime, they often peacefully resist the persecution by refusing to recite the prison regulations, answer roll call or wear prison uniforms]. A guard beat him until he lost consciousness and then ordered three prisoners to continue beating him. When Mr. Ma woke up, his face was bruised and disfigured. He went on a hunger strike in protest and asked to be released immediately. Five days later, the guard tied him to a bed and inserted a tube into his nose and throat and force-fed him.

During each force-feeding, prisoner Xie Hui would kneel on Mr. Ma, with one knee on his chest and the other knee on his neck. This caused Mr. Ma to be unable to breathe. One time while being force-fed, he lost consciousness.

On the morning of January 1st, 2006, prisoners Xie Hui and Zhou Chungui opened all the windows in Mr. Ma's cell and stripped off his clothes. The prisoners tied him to his bed and left him in the cold for over two hours. They repeated this torture on January 9th and 15th. Prison guards often beat and verbally abused him, and after a while, Mr. Ma became severely emaciated.

Violent Means Used to Force Mr. Ma to Renounce Falun Dafa

On July 13th, 2006, people at the Chifeng Prison started a ""transformation¹" class" to torture practitioners and force them to give up Falun Dafa. When Mr. Ma arrived at the class, he protested and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good." A guard handcuffed his arms behind his back and prisoners Xie Hui and Li Dongfeng lifted up his arms from the back. Mr. Ma fainted due to this extreme pain. The next day prisoners Xie Hui and Zhou Chungui tied him onto a tiger bench² and put earphones on his ears, with the volume turned to maximum. The prisoners played CDs that slandered Falun Dafa from 5:00 a.m. until midnight. After midnight the prisoners tied Mr. Ma to a bed with ropes wrapped around his wrists, legs, and chest. One time a prisoner tied the rope so tight that Mr. Ma lost consciousness. The prisoner then used a nail to poke into the soles of his bare feet, while claiming he was performing an emergency rescue. Mr. Ma's feet were full of punctures and were severely inflamed.

Mr. Ma still refused to renounce Falun Dafa. Prisoner Zhou Chungui grabbed his rib area with such a strong grip that it caused significant bleeding. Prisoner Wang Yachun beat Mr. Ma with an inch-thick wooden board until he was bruised and injured all over his body.

One time, prisoners Xie and Zhou tied Mr. Ma on a tiger bench again and laid his two legs on a stool. The prisoners placed a rod on his shins and secured six bricks to the middle of the rod. The rod scraped off Mr. Ma's skin and caused him to bleed continuously. As soon as he fell asleep, the prisoners hit the soles of his bare feet with a stick that had nails protruding from the surface.

On August 16th, 2006, prisoners Xie and Zhou tied Mr. Ma on a cross. He was extremely uncomfortable because he could neither stand straight nor kneel down. That afternoon, guards Zhang Shujun and Chen Jia'ning put him on the ground and used two stools to hold him down. Zhang and Chen sat on the stools and shocked him with two 300kV electric batons for two hours. This torture continued for many days. On August 17th, 2006, prisoner Zhou forcefully hit Mr. Ma on his neck with the palms of his hands, injuring his throat. Even now, Mr. Ma still can't talk loudly.

On August 18th, 2006, prisoners Xie, Zhou, and Wang hung Mr. Ma upside down from a pipe. Because of the prolonged time of hanging in that position, his arm was disabled. He couldn't work and could barely feed himself. The prisoners claimed that he was faking the injury. Prisoners Pan Liming, Xie, Zhou, and Wang burned Mr. Ma's fingers with lit candles. Afterwards, his fingers were covered with bloody blisters.

The prisoners tied Mr. Ma on a bed and force-fed him with salt water, which caused him to have severe diarrhoea. They did not allow him to use a toilet and hence he had faeces all over his trousers and on the ground. Prisoner Xie mopped the feces off of the ground and wiped it on Mr. Ma's face.

On August 20th, 2006, prisoner Wang covered Mr. Ma's head with a blanket and prisoner Xie hit his legs until they were injured and swollen. He was in so much pain that he couldn't squat down when he needed to use a toilet. The prisoners tried to force him to write statements renouncing Falun Dafa, but he was too weak to hold a pen. Prisoner Zhang Dahaiheld took Mr. Ma's hand and wrote the statements and claimed that Mr. Ma had renounced Falun Dafa.

The prison guards instigated prisoners to torture Mr. Ma and rewarded these prisoners. Some even received reduced sentences and were assigned less work.

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. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/8/30/161793.html