Sixty Falun Gong Practitioners Being Tortured at Deyang Prison in Sichuan Province

Currently, Communist regime agents still detain more than 60 practitioners in Deyang Prison of Sichuan Province. At times, over 100 practitioners have been detained there. These practitioners are being held in six prison wards, including: Ward One, Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten (Ward Two is no longer in use).

Among the detained practitioners, 80-year-old Mr. Yang Shouming from Guanghan City is the oldest. Younger practitioners detained there include college students and graduate students. Some of the practitioners have served as County Executive, Party Secretary and Director General. Some are workers and peasants. They were arrested and sentenced up to 10 years in jail for practising Falun Gong. There are also practitioners from the same families among the prisoners. Mr. Yang Shouming is serving a ten-year sentence, while his wife received nine years. 68-year-old Zhang Wanyou received a ten-year sentence, and his wife has been sentenced to nine years. Another 65-year-old practitioner, his wife and two sons are all serving concurrent terms.

The police exercised extreme cruelty toward Falun Gong practitioners, causing severe physical and psychological harm to them. In the beginning of 2007, the newly appointed jail head, Liu Yuanhang, decided to intensify the persecution. Following his initiative, the prison guards deployed constant "sandwich-type" monitoring and "reform¹" by force. They instituted "first degree strict control" on all practitioners. Liu Yuanhang also launched a so-called "reform quota." The prison authorities selected murderers, rapists and violent criminals to monitor practitioners. Two criminals were assigned to watch one practitioner. The selected criminals were given 0.5 points of extra bonus a day, which was equivalent to four days of labour. The police officers assigned by the 610 Office² to persecute Falun Gong practitioners were told to use every means to "reform" the practitioners. During the day, all practitioners were forced to work alongside common criminal inmates. During breaks, however, these inmates were allowed to rest, but practitioners were forced to stand with their heads bent down and pressed against the wall. Some practitioners were punched and kicked. Sometimes, the torture lasted until 3 a.m. To hide these shameful acts, the monitoring inmates told other people to stay away.

Practitioners in seven prison wards (Ward One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten) were tortured and injured. The guards sent many practitioners to solitary confinement or "strictly controlled teams" at will. In 2006, Li Xiaobo (former County Executive of Pujiang County, Sichuan Province and Researcher at Sichuan Provincial Policy Research Office) wrote an article to expose the communist's lies. Several days later, the guards sent him to the "strictly controlled team." In the second half of 2006, he was transferred to Ward Five.

In Ward Five, Chen Hong, a very vicious guard, was designated to be in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. Practitioner Chen Jingxi, a middle school teacher, was detained in Ward Six. Despite repeated confinement in a "strictly controlled team," he was very steadfast in appealing on behalf of Falun Gong. Practitioner Zhang Chunbao, in his 30's, is a former college student from Mianyang City who was detained in Ward One. Guard Wang Jin repeatedly tortured Zhang Chunbao with various methods, including sleep deprivation. As a result, Zhang's feet were so badly swollen that he could not even walk. In Ward Two, Practitioner Wu Shihai was a school teacher in his 30's. As a result of torture, he lost several teeth, was mentally traumatised, and became partially paralysed and permanently disabled. Later, Wu Shihai went missing. His whereabouts became a mystery. Ward Ten was assigned to detain older and ill prisoners. Yang Shouming is detained there. Once he tried to explain the facts about Falun Gong to the guards. They were infuriated and sent him to solitary confinement for 15 days.

Some practitioners could not endure the relentless torture and agreed to write the so-called three statements. The prison authorities' deceptive propaganda against Falun Gong created strong fear among the common inmates. Many of them do not even dare to talk to practitioners, nor do they dare to express sympathy. When a practitioner is about to leave the prison, the guards become very nervous. They tried everything to prevent practitioners from taking any evidence with them, including notebooks and other documents. They started to closely monitor the soon-to-be-released practitioners several days beforehand. On the day of release, they would conduct a thorough body search, which included stripping them of their clothing.

When practitioners first arrived at the prison, the guards (under orders from the 610 Office) would confiscate their "Prosecution Statement" and "Verdict Statement" (legal papers from the court). They told the practitioners: "You have no use for these. We will give them to you when you are released." But to keep this evidence of their unlawful acts hidden, when they were released, the police would find other excuses to hold onto these documents. Warden Ma of Ward Two once said in a public meeting: "If a war broke out, we would execute you Falun Gong practitioners first." Prison guard Pu Dong of Ward Four often told people: "I am the police, so I fear no one. I can do whatever I feel like to torture you. If you are not obedient, I guarantee I will knock you down in three minutes. Then I will claim that you hit a police officer. Who will dare to testify for you? You will be defenceless."

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. "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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/11/24/167112.html