Practitioner Mr. Li Shangshi Sends Article from Prison Describing His Persecution Experience

I have been subjected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution, and I had to leave home to avoid further persecution. At around 5:00 p.m. on April 20th, 2004, I left the home of my relative and rode a bicycle westwards along the North Levee of the Liao River to the home of another relative in Weijia Village, Panjin City, Liaoning Province. All of sudden, four young men jumped out from the levee and pushed me down. At first, I thought this was a robbery, but when I tried to escape, I saw an older man standing there giving directions to them. I realised that they were policemen, so I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" Some of the policemen tried to cover my mouth, and some pulled my arms behind my back and forcibly handcuffed me. After that, they pushed me into a jeep with ease since there were almost no passersby around at that time. They took me to the Shuangtaizi District Police Department in Panjin City, dragged me up to the second floor, and slammed me down on the floor.

Twenty minutes later, police officer Wang Yunxiao, who was the person directing the arrest, came to me and said, "We have orders from the Liaoning Province Police Bureau to ask you some questions." Then they dragged me into the jeep and took me to the Panjin City Number Three Detention Centre. There, the guard asked them for some paperwork. Wang Yunxiao answered, "We'll provide you with that later." Then, the police were allowed to put me into a small cell. Guard Zhang, who was in charge of the cell, said aloud to himself, "How could they accept him without any paperwork?"

At around 4:00 p.m. on the third day, policeman Lianjie, from the Political Security Team of the Panjin City Police Department, along with another young man, interrogated me. At first, they pretended to be friendly to me and when I refused to answer their questions about Falun Gong, they became angry and started beating me. They pulled my hair, slapped my face many times, punched me in the chest, and as a result, I fell to the ground. Lianjie did not stop until I started shouting and I was sent back to the cell.

The next day, the police department sent policeman Li Guohua and another young man to interrogate me. From the beginning to the end, I only said one sentence, "The Chinese government has never followed the law when dealing with Falun Gong. Therefore, I refuse to answer any questions." I wrote this on their interrogation notebook, and the police never came back to me after that. They made up some materials and handed them over to the Xinglong District Procuratorate.

After a while, the Xinglong District Procuratorate sent Procurator Pei Guangyan, who persecuted many Falun Gong practitioners in the past, to interrogate me, and he ended up leaving with no information from me.

The day before the Xinglong District Court's trial, the court sent two lawyers over to prepare a "defence argument" for me. I asked them, "Are you going to defend my innocence or defend me by saying that I am guilty?" One of them answered, "Of course we will be saying that you admit guilt." I asked, "Without any investigation, what makes you believe that I am guilty?" She said, "The government said that Falun Gong is guilty. So it's guilty."

The next day, right before the trial, I refused to use the lawyers and so during the trial, Procurator Pei Guangyan read his fabricated indictment. Then, Judge Ma Li started his questioning of me. I told the judge that the government's propaganda about Falun Gong were false. The judge saw that I was not cooperating and ordered the court policemen to take away my chair to force me to stand up. So, I sat in the audience seats, and then Ma Li had no choice but to order that my chair be returned. I was about to talk again, but Ma Li cut me off. He said, "Meng Jian (another Falun Gong practitioner) was sentenced to thirteen years in prison. You are her leader, so you should be sentenced to a longer term." Then he announced the adjournment of the court and did not give me a chance to talk. The next day, they sentenced me to a fourteen-year prison term.

Ms. Meng Jian was arrested in May 2003 and although we were both practitioners, we had never contacted each other. We knew about each other as fellow practitioners, but that was it. Also, there is no leader-follower relationship among practitioners; I was simply a volunteer assistant.

The court did not inform my relatives about the trial, nor did it send out any bulletins. During the trial, they had policeman Zhang Runqiu, who is from the Political Security Group in the police department, and a dozen other policemen sitting in as the audience.

I refused to wear the prisoner uniform or let them shave my head. When the inmates were sitting or when there were inspections by upper-level divisions, I slept, instead of sitting like the rest. The inmates were required to recite the prison's rules, and to have their pictures and fingerprints taken, but I refused. During the five months that I was in the detention centre, I did the sitting exercise every morning except for the period when I was on a hunger strike.

On September 28th, 2004, two Falun Gong practitioners from Huludao City in Liaoning Province and I were taken to the Fushun City Number Two Prison, also known as the Qingtaizi Prison. There are currently ten Falun Gong practitioners being tortured in the prison. One practitioner from Dalian City in Liaoning Province was "transformed¹," but the other nine did not give in. One practitioner shouted, "Falun Dafa is good" at the meetings with all of the inmates. Also, some practitioners did not comply when the guards during roll-call, some wrote articles to expose the CCP's evil, some wrote articles describing the miracles of cultivating in Falun Dafa, and some did the sitting exercises on a regular basis. All nine practitioners refused to participate in the forced labour, the tests, the political study (brainwashing), the recital of prison rules, getting their picture taken, and other activities.

As the practitioners continuously exposed the wickedness of the CCP, some guards and many inmates developed a positive understanding of Dafa and treated Falun Gong practitioners kindly. They also understood that the CCP's propaganda against Falun Gong was false. Only a few guards continued the persecution against the practitioners. The most cherished moment I can recall was when an inmate started practising Falun Gong after he understood the truth. When the guard asked him where he got Master's articles, he stayed calm and did not answer. Then, the guard just left.

Attached is the guards roster of the Fushun City Number Two Prison Fourth District:

Zou Jun: director of the district

Wei Chunguang: political instructor in charge of persecuting Falun Gong

Xie Tingbao: deputy director in charge of brainwashing practitioners

Sun Yuhua: guard

Liu Yan: deputy director in charge of labour

Li Hongchen: squadron lead

Li Changshui: squadron lead

Cong Dianwei: squadron lead, 86-413-6110683 (Office)

There are three Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in this district currently: Mr. Cui Jian from Shenyang City in Liaoning Province, Mr. Li Shangshi from Panjin City and Mr. Hu Yongli from Huludao City.

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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/12/17/168550.html