Report on the Maltreatment of Over Thirty Falun Gong Practitioners Who Were Arrested in Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province

On August 1st, 2007, more than 40 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested. Practitioner Hu Yanrong was tortured to death. Currently, there are more than 30 practitioners still imprisoned. Eight practitioners, including Li Jingfang, Guo Fengxian, Dong Xiuqin, Zhang Guiju and others, were transferred one after another to Lingyuan First Detention Centre. Other practitioners were imprisoned at Lingyuan Second Detention Centre (the civil detention centre of Lingyuan City).

At the Second Detention Centre, practitioners suffered physical and verbal abuse of different kinds. The police used deceitful ways to extort money from the practitioners by promising that they would be released after 15 days. In addition, they distributed forms to the practitioners and promised to release those who filled out the forms. Some of the practitioners believed them at first and cooperated in completing the paperwork. However, their sentences were all extended to an additional 15 days of detention the next day.

In addition, the guards used different methods to deceive the practitioners. They said that if a practitioner would "confess everything," and as long as they promised that they would practise Falun Gong only at home, and not visit other practitioners, and tell the guards all they knew, they would be released the next day. The guards said that if they felt that any "confessions" were inconsistent, then they would need to continue the detention. Thus, some practitioners confessed some matters, including how they got there, who told them to go there, whom they knew, and how they knew each other, etc. Then the guards collated the records of related practitioners. This resulted in some imprisoned practitioners suffering further persecution.

At the Second Detention Centre, the imprisoned practitioners were only given diluted rice porridge to eat every day. Some cells only had one meal a day at 7:00 p.m. The families were forced to pay a 25-yuan¹ boarding fee and more than 300 yuan for other costs every two weeks. Those practitioners whose families paid the money were detained separately from those who didn't pay. The practitioners without money could only have thin porridge and sleep on a bare bed board. They were only given corn flour buns after their families paid money.

Under the brutal persecution aimed at both the body and soul, some practitioners exhibited disease symptoms. Among them, Zhang Guiju collapsed, unconscious. When two older practitioners saw this, they rushed to her and tried to help. However, they were dragged away by the guards. They were then handcuffed to a heater and were beaten and cursed. Therefore, Zhang Guiju was not taken care of by anyone. After a long time, she woke up on her own. Practitioner Yin Shuhua had symptoms of paralysis that led to a coma. She was sent to the hospital, and after the symptoms were slightly alleviated she was illegally taken back into custody. Another elderly practitioner suffered untold humiliation when they took down a personal record by abusing and insulting her. She then fell unconscious. She was also sent to the hospital and after the symptom was alleviated she was taken back into custody. Practitioner Li Yingzhi had a prior heart condition reoccur and almost went into coma. She informed the guard on duty about her condition. A female official, whose last name was Fang, cruelly cursed Li before giving her several "heart pills" then swaggered away. At the present time, whoever experiences sickness symptoms is ignored. The prison officials stated: "As there are so many Chinese people, it is nothing if several died."

In addition, when Hu Yanli and sister-in-law Guo Fengxian heard that their second sister Hu Yanrong was tortured to death, they cried out and asked to view her remains. They were kicked and cursed at by a tall policeman and a contract chef. They also used electric batons to shock Hu Yanli and Guo Fengxian and threatened to handcuff them if they "caused further trouble."

Supplementary information about the persecution death of practitioner Hu Yanrong, who was from Lingyuan City:

On August 1st, 2007, practitioner Hu Yanrong was illegally arrested. On August 5th, she was tortured to death. On August 12th, the Lingyuan City Police Department, Beilu Township government and Lingyuan City court, and other departments forced the family members to cremate Hu Yanrong's remains.

The above departments used coercion and threats to deter Hu Yanrong's family members. They said that if they did not agree to cremation, they would forcefully cremate their daughter and threatened to arrest all family members. Meanwhile, in order to accelerate the process and end the case, they enticed family members with 20,000 yuan as a relief fund. Therefore, under the strict monitoring of related government departments, Hu Yanrong's body was cremated and her ashes buried. Later, the village also gave Hu Yanrong's family members 20,000 yuan on behalf of "helping the poor funds." Thus, the government officials completely skirted their responsibility in the arrest and persecution death of this practitioner.

Several days after Hu Yanrong was buried, Hu Yanrong's husband had to leave home to make a living and left his elderly father and young child behind.

Lingyuan City Police Department Deputy Head, Yang Minghui: 86-421-6883103 (Office), 86-421-6824813 (Home), 86-13904213390 (Mobile)
Lingyuan City National Security Division Head, Wang Guilin: 86-421-6891665 86-421-6883208 86-13704917349(Mobile)
Lingyuan City Police Department Head, Zhang Lin: 86-421-688310 (Office) 86-421-2690000 (Home) 86-13304910001(Mobile)

The Following is a list of the local police station personnel that participated in arrests:
Beilu Police Station
Head, Li Zhenghua: 86-13904211141 (Mobile) 86-13904211411(Mobile) 86-421-2334004
Political Head, Pan Zhitao: 86-13634938070 (Mobile)
Deputy-head, Han Lichen: 86-421-2334035 86-13352363561 (Mobile)

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/8/24/161406.html