Mr. Liu Yongwang Very Weak from One and a Half Year Hunger Strike at Yidong Prison, Hebei Province

Detained Falun Gong Practitioner Mr. Liu Yongwang has been on hunger strike at the Yidong Prison in Hebei Province for a year and a half. He is very weak now. The family requested many times to have him treated outside of the prison. However, prison officials denied the request, stating there are insufficient reasons to grant it.

Mr. Liu, thirty-six years old and a Beijing resident, began his cultivation in Falun Gong in 1995. He used to be a section head and a chief engineer at a foreign company in Beijing. After the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, he appealed for Falun Gong. He went to Tiananmen Square several times to open banners and was detained for a week at the Tiananmen Police Station.

In May 2000, Beijing National Security Bureau agents searched Mr. Liu's office at work while he was on a business trip to Shanghai. Shanghai police and police from the Beijing National Security Bureau arrested him. In the meantime his sister and brother-in-law were also arrested and held at the No. 7 Division. Mr. Liu was released one month later for lack of evidence and because he had protested by holding a hunger strike during detention. However, the police threatened Mr. Liu's employer that they either had to dismiss Mr. Liu or lose their licence to do business. As a result, the company terminated Mr. Liu's position sooner than the date on the contract.

Mr. Liu and his family decided to leave home to avoid further persecution. On September 13th, 2001 Mr. Liu's family was arrested in Shanghai, including his then two-year old child. They were held at the Sonjiang Detention Centre in Shanghai and at the Baoding City Detention Centre in Hebei Province for a total eighty-eight days. During that time, Mr. Liu had been holding the hunger strike to protest.

On December 10th, 2001, Mr. Liu was transferred to the Baoding Forced Labour Camp. On October 13th, 2002, guards took him into a room used to torture those practitioners who did not give up Falun Gong. The guards use various torture methods on him: electrical shocks, beating with rubber clubs and "tightening rope."* As a result, he lost one of his front teeth. Long time electrical shocking on his head and sensitive parts of his legs filled the room with the odour of burning flesh. He was tortured non-stop for three days. Then the abusers immobilised him on a metal bed with his four limbs stretched around the clock. He was kept in this position for twenty-one days.

Mr. Liu's left leg became dysfunctional. The persecutors continued to abuse him after he was transferred again to the Tangshan City Forced Labour Camp. In May 2004, he was initially diagnosed with "neurological damage in both lower limbs" that would progress to paralysis. In mid-June 2004 he was released on medical parole.

After being released to seek outside treatment, during the period from 2005 to 2006, the abusers continued to persecute Mr. Liu. See details at http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200701/37661.html .

In 2007, after the relatives had become aware of Mr. Liu Yongwang's bad health, they came to the prison, one after another in January, February and April, requesting his release. The prison officials refused the relatives' visitation, because Mr. Liu had exposed the prison officials' evil actions on the Internet. Having exhausted all resources, Mr. Liu's wife talked with the prison director. She and her child were then able to visit Mr. Liu before the Chinese New Year in 2007. On July 23rd, 2007, Mr. Liu's father, brother, wife and his child arrived at the prison at 9:00 a.m. to visit Mr. Liu. However, the police refused to admit them. They negotiated and were given a new time, at 4:00 p.m. but only with his father and child, and for less than 20 minutes.

Mr. Liu has been on a persecution protest hunger strike for a year and half. The prison officials hesitated to permit the family visitation, and family members have not seen him since July 2007. He relies on fluids for survival. In addition to the dysfunctional left leg, he suffers from pain and numbness in his lower body as the result of abuse and force-feeding at the Baoding Force Labour Camp.

Mr. Liu's family members are asking all kind people around the world to help them rescue Mr. Liu.

Attachment:

The document Mr. Liu wrote to the court, which describes how he was interrogated under force at Baoding City Police Department:

My name is Liu Yongwang. I am male, 34 years old, and now unjustly incarcerated at the Baoding City Detention Centre. In the middle of October 2005, a group of police including Zhang Rongjie and Zhi Zhanming interrogated me against my will, and under torture to gain a confession. They were able to obtain two forged pieces of evidence of my involvement in the satellite broadcasting of Falun Gong information. On October 24th, they showed me those two forged documents but I refused to admit anything. Nevertheless, the police obtained an arrest order based on those two forged documents. They extracted a confession with brutal torture and threats between November 7th and 13th, 2005.

I was interrogated during the afternoon of November 7th, 2005. Instead of taking me to the interrogation room, I was put in the library room in No.9 of Division 1. The library room had a chair. I was pushed on the chair with my body and hands locked onto the chair. The persons who showed up were detention centre head Cui Jiming, commissar Weng Guaoqing, deputy head Mr. Guo, Second Ward Head Ruan Xiwei, and guard Yu Dehuai. I had by then been on a two-month hunger strike. The force-feeding was conducted while I was tied on the chair. A nurse Tian Qing (a part time worker) and Gao Chao (hired by the centre) were there conducting force-feeding, three times per day.

There was no heater in the library room. A table was packed with torture instruments, including a high-powered electric baton, a lamp and wooden sticks. Deputy head of the city police department Wu Xian arrived in the evening and told me, "We will make you exhausted to the end."

City Domestic Security Division head Feng Yong was in charge of the whole process. After Wu Xian left, Fen pressured me exceedingly. In the next few days, led by Fen Yong, police officers in groups of three took turns to torture me to confess. The torture methods included sleep deprivation; even a blink of the eyes was suspect. When I fell asleep they put a high-powered flashlight in front of my face, poked me using sticks and shocked me electrically. Dingxing Domestic Security Division deputy head Li Zhunling shocked me for a long time. Liu Jintan, head of the Beishi District Domestic Security Division had criminal Li Jianxin bring a cat to defecate on papers and threatened to put it into my mouth.

There were three groups; Group One contained Fan Yong (now at Dongguan Police Station), Sun Li (from City Domestic Security Division) and another police officer. Ho Ruiwei (from City Domestic Security Division), Liu Jintan and Xie Qingshui (the former head of the Quyang County Domestic Security Division) were in Group Two, as well as Li Zunling and Liu Haibing (from the Qingyuan County Police Department) and another police officer. During the process, Xie Guaobin (from the Xushui County Police Department) was there sometimes.

The interrogation under torture continued to the third day. I had a severe headache and I felt ill. Nevertheless, Feng Yong still threatened that if I did not confess, they would arrest my wife. On November 13th, 2005, the seventh day of interrogation, unable to withstand the long term torture and mental torment, I confessed and signed my name and gave my finger prints on the record paper, which was against my will. That afternoon I was sent back to my cell.

I ask for the court to investigate illegal method of extorting confessions by torture conducted by police officers Zhang Rongjie and Zhi Zhanming who were in charge of my case. Pleased find the facts, withdraw the false evidence, and restore my innocent name.

Liu Yongwang, February 10th, 2006

Jidong Prison in Hebei Province
Sun Chenliang, Prison head, 86-315-8327666(Office), 86-13930530566(Mobile) 86-13832978666 (Mobile)

Pen Yanjie, Commissioner and involved in the persecution: 86-315-8327888(Office), 86-315-8502668(Home), 86-13903157108(Mobile)
Prison First Division
Li Kaijiang, Division head, 86-315-8501922(Home), 86-13931531426((Mobile) 86-315-8313001(Office)
Li Xaiojing, the deputy division head in charge of the persecution, 86-315-8320326(Home), 86-13832555855(Mobile)
Li Tielin, the deputy division head in charge of the persecution, 86-315-8501728(Home), 86-13171500822(Mobile)
Zhang Fuliang, the education section head in charge of the persecution, 86-315-8313950(Home), 86-315-8313089(Office), 86-13513398796(Mobile)
Ma Changzheng, head of Prison Affairs Section, in charge of persecution, 86-315-8313086(Office), 86-13653155808(Mobile)
Liu Yajun, team leader in charge of Mr. Liu, 86-315-8317139(Home), 86-13081132787(Mobile)

(See also the letter from Liu's father: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200706/39991.html)

For a detailed description of many forms of torture used in forced labour camps, see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html and http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/2/3/18368.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/12/1/167539.html