Middle School Teacher Mr. Wu Shihai Suffers a Mental Breakdown, Near Death in Deyang Prison of Sichuan Province

Mr. Wu Shihai used to be a teacher at the Zhaojue County Ethnic Middle School in Zhaojue County, Liangshan District, Sichuan Province. He is an honest, kindhearted man and a hard worker. He has been continually subjected to brutal torture during the past several years for his belief in Falun Dafa. Currently detained at Deyang Prison in Sichuan Province, he has become mentally disoriented and was on the brink of death due to long-term torture. It is currently unknown whether or not he is still alive.

Torture Suffered in Deyang Prison

Wu Shihai informed his students about the true nature of Falun Gong and the persecution. As a result, the local 610 Office¹ ransacked his house and arrested him on April 6th, 2005. On April 27th, an arrest notice was issued by the Zhaojue County Police Department accusing him of "using an illegal organisation to disrupt the administration of law." He was brutally tortured and then sent to the emergency room of the local hospital. Later, he was wrongfully sentenced to a prison term in Zhaojue County Courthouse. He was sent to Deyang Prison.

Mr. Wu was kept in the No. 2 Ward at Deyang Prison. He was so severely beaten that he was covered with bruises. He could hardly talk and had difficulty walking. He was cruelly tortured at roll calls. The guards verbally abused and humiliated him. He was dragged or carried in and out, held high in the air and then thrown to the ground. The guards instigated several inmates to beat him. He was often starved, forced to wear handcuffs and shackles, and locked in a solitary cell. He was only allowed a thin layer of clothing and almost no bedding. He was forced to sleep on the cold floor during the freezing winter. Eventually, he started to suffer from a mental disorder because of the torture he suffered. He could no longer take care of himself and had no sense of hot and cold.

Mr. Wu Shihai was brutally beaten at around 1 p.m. on July 12th, 2006. He was sentenced to death with two years' reprieve, due to schizophrenia. He was beaten many times at the instigation of prison inmate Xiang Pan. Zhang Tao violently struck Mr. Wu's head with a wooden chair on July 12th. Mr. Wu lost two teeth, and his jaw and many bones in his face were fractured. The hospital needed 20 stitches to sew him up and classified him as being in critical condition.

That afternoon a meeting was held by personnel from Ward No. 2 and the 610 Office to deny any responsibility for Mr. Wu Shihai's injuries. The attendees decided to cover up the crimes of inmate Xiang Pan and others who persecuted Mr. Wu. They interrogated only criminal inmate Zhang Tao. Ward No. 2's Director Chen Ping took Zhang Tao to the No. 3 People's Hospital for the mentally ill in Mianyang City for interrogation on July 19th. They concluded that Zhang Tao was in a normal state of mind when the crime happened on July12th.

This recent beating is an example of Deyang Prison's long term persecution of Dafa practitioners and the prison guards' instigation of prisoners to persecute practitioners. The warden of the Ward No. 2 Zeng Guifu and deputy warden Ma Chengde should be held responsible for this incident. The beating of Mr. Wu Shihai happened at around noon, was witnessed by many people, and resulted in serious injury. The prison authorities used Zhang Tao as a scapegoat to cover up their own crimes and didn't allow any practitioners to testify. Months have passed since this crime took place on July 12th, and no legal procedures have been followed. Instead Wu Shihai, the victim, continues to be physically assaulted in Ward No. 10, where they have transferred him. Those who beat him included death row inmates Song Wenchao and Meng Zhaofu.

The secretary of the Deyang City Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee slandered Dafa publicly at a meeting in April 2007. Since then, guards at Deyang Prison have launched yet another round of bloody persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. The new prison head Liu Yuanhang, deputy head Shi Junhua, and the 610 Office director Wu Yuanshan are the main perpetrators.

The prison authorities started to monitor and forcefully "transform²" practitioners through brutal torture at the beginning of 2007. All of the practitioners were placed under the strictest control. Each ward was assigned a "transformation" rate (the percentage of practitioners that are forced to give up their belief in Dafa). The prison guards picked the most violent inmates to monitor practitioners. Two inmates monitored each practitioner. These inmates were awarded 0.5 points each month for monitoring practitioners. The 610 Office managed the guards assigned to "transform" practitioners. They were told that they could do anything to practitioners that refused to "transform."

Practitioners were forced to work during the day, were deprived of breaks, and were only allowed a meal time. Practitioners were forced to stand with their heads against the wall while other inmates sat down to rest. Some were beaten by other inmates or prison guards. Some were not allowed to sleep all night. The methods of torture used by the guards were unspeakable, and other inmates were not allowed to witness the torture of practitioners.

In the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 10th Wards, there were incidents of practitioners being injured or disabled by beatings. Practitioners were sent to solitary confinement cells or kept under strict control at all times.

Mr. Wu's parents went to Deyang Prison to visit at the end of December 2007. The prison authorities didn't allow them to see their son. A guard said that Mr. Wu had become totally incontinent. Currently it's unknown whether or not he is still alive.

The torture Mr. Wu endured from July of 1999 to August of 2004

Deputy Secretary of the Zhaojue County CCP Committee Wu Jinping, Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary Yang Tongcai, and security officer Tian Maoqi are among the Zhaojue County officials directly involved in the persecution of Mr. Wu Shihai between July 20th, 1999 and August 2004. The county police department, the local police station, the county education bureau, and his school were in charge of the surveillance plans implemented to monitor his daily activities. These government agencies also ordered Zhang Li, the Party secretary at his school, to withhold his salary. They took his money and used it to pay for their restaurant meals and to cover the expenses they incurred in persecuting him.

Mr. Wu Shihai was interrogated by a group of officials on July 20th, 1999. Tian Maoqi from the Zhaojue County Department of Politics and Security (the county's National Security Brigade) was in charge. Mr. Wu was under surveillance day and night after that and was not allowed to teach.

He went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong in October 1999. He was brought back to the Department of Politics and Security in Zhaojue County by county security staff. He was tortured until he "confessed," detained for 49 days, and fined 5000 yuan³. He was released on December 7th, 1999, but was kept under constant surveillance. An official from his middle school took him to a room in the County Education Bureau each day, where a guard watched him all day until he was returned to his dorm room at school. Then the school administrator paid staff 10 yuan to monitor him.

Mr. Wu resolutely refused to acquiesce to the unreasonable demands of the 610 Office that he stop appealing for Falun Gong, remain in Zhaojue County and stop talking to fellow practitioners. He was again detained for one month by the Zhaojue County 610 Office in April 2000. He still refused to comply with their demands after his release. As a result, seven days later Mr. Wu was arrested and detained for yet another month. He again rejected their demands. One week later, they detained him again for two months.

On August 14th, 2000, he was sentenced to one year of forced labour by the Zhaojue County 610 Office and sent to Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Sichuan Province. Guards instigated criminal inmates to physically abuse him. He was forced to run for extremely long periods of time and to stand in a fixed posture for a long time. He lost consciousness on several occasions. Every day, he had to stand in a fixed posture from early morning until the next morning. He was tightly tied up with thin ropes, shocked with electric batons, force fed, and tortured in other ways. He continued to do the exercises and refused to work. They extended his term by four more months. He was released on December 16th, 2001.

He was still under surveillance after his release. During August 2002, he went to Panzhihua City to help make leaflets exposing the persecution. On September 6th, 2002, he was arrested by several policemen led by Zhang Bolin and Qiu Tianming from the Panzhihua City National Security Brigade. He was interrogated and shocked with electric batons while hung up by the handcuffs.

On January 15th, 2003, he was sentenced to two years of forced labour and sent to Xinhua Forced Labour Camp again. There he was again physically abused, forced to stand in a fixed posture for a long time, and forced to repeatedly squat or stand for extremely long periods of time. He refused to be "transformed" and was taken to the No. 3 People's Hospital for the mentally ill in Mianyang City. There, personnel administered nerve-damaging drugs both orally and by injection. Several unidentified drugs were used. Mr. Wu's reactions and movements slowed, his facial muscles became paralysed, and he exhibited signs of reduced mental capacity. He was finally released in August 2004.

Those responsible:

Zhaojue County, Liangshan District:

Wu Jinping, Deputy Secretary of Zhaojue County CCP Committee
Yang Tongcai, Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary
Security officers Tian Maoqi, Xu Zhihua, He Yong
Zhang Li, Zhaojue County Ethnic Middle School Party Secretary

Mianyang City No. 3 People's Hospital in Sichuan Province:
Tang Kexin, Party Secretary and Hospital Director

Panzhihua City Stability Enforcement Office (the 610 Office):
Directors Zhang Bolin and Qiu Tianming

Deyang Prison in Sichuan Province:
Prison head Liu Yuanhang
Deputy head Shi Junhua
The 610 Office director Wu Yuanshan
Warden of No. 1 Ward Tang Beizhou
Wardens of No. 2 Ward Zeng Guifu, Ma Chengde, Chen Ping, Cui Weigang, Zhang Jun

Note

1. "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.

2. "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")

3. "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/2008/1/17/170499.html