Please Help Falun Gong Practitioner Li Feng, Who Is Being Persecuted at the No. 4 Prison of Shijiazhuang City

Because he was involved in broadcasting a TV programme about Falun Gong, practitioner Mr. Li Feng from Anguo City, Hebei Province was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment at the No. 4 Prison of Shijiazhuang City. Torture in the prison damaged his health, as Li Feng developed heart disease and high blood pressure in late 2005. His family requested that the prison allow Li Feng to go home and receive treatment, but their request was rejected. They were told that Li Feng had not been "transformed¹" yet.

After the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, Li Feng tried to appeal to the government about Falun Gong. However, the appeals offices at different levels arrested people who wanted to talk about Falun Gong. Li Feng had to turn to other means of appealing. Under those circumstances, Li Feng interrupted local TV broadcasting by playing programmes exposing the persecution on its channels about Falun Gong.

On October 4th, 2002, after being arrested in Mazhuang Village, Anguo City, Li Feng was asked by Li Dongfu, Director of the Anguo City Police Station, how much money he was carrying with him and how much money there was at home. Li Dongfu told Li Feng that there was a provincial-level confidential order allowing local police to do anything while arresting Li Feng and others involved in intercepting TV signals, including killing them. Upon being sent to the Shifo Township Police Station, Li Feng was brutally beaten by policemen from the Hebei Provincial Police Bureau and the Anguo City Police Station. He was then brought to the Anguo City Police Station to be questioned and tortured. Li Feng was subjected to sleep deprivation for five days and nights in a row there. Li Dongfu and other policemen forced Li Feng to take a drug that caused him to lose his sight, hearing, and coherence for days. To this day his sight and hearing are diminished.

While he was detained at Xushui Detention Centre from October 2002 to October 2003, the wardens called his family asking for money and goods. Li Feng's family sent him the money and items based on the wardens' messages, but they didn't pass them on to Li Feng. Instead, they kept them for their own use.

On July 15th, 2003, the Xushui Court held a trial for Li Feng and 16 other practitioners. Without being given the chance to defend themselves, the practitioners were forced to sign some papers and were sentenced two months later. The practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest the unjust sentences. On the evening of October 11th, 2003, the Baoding Court set up another trial and upheld the original sentences the next day. On October 16th, Li Feng and his fellow practitioners were sent to Baoding Prison, where they continued the protest hunger strike. The wardens sent four of the practitioners, including Li Feng, to a brainwashing centre in Beijiao Prison of Shijiazhuang City. Feng Fu, who ran the brainwashing centre, subjected the practitioners to severe torture. As a result of the torture, Li Feng suffered a mental collapse. He cried and laughed uncontrollably for five days, and has been incoherent ever since. Even so, he is still under close watch by the police.

Around May and June in 2004, Li Feng fainted twice. He also suffered seizures and had high blood pressure. Starting in March 2005, he exhibited symptoms like being out of breath, weakness, bowel and urinary disorders, and high blood pressure. The symptoms recurred frequently. In mid-January, 2006, Li Feng lost consciousness for 12 hours and was kept in the hospital for two days. He was unable to eat for more than 10 days. The prison covered up the information and wouldn't allow Li Feng's family to see or contact him. Li Feng is currently near death.

The practitioners held at the No. 4 Prison are regularly subjected to mental torture and forced labour. They are fed with garbage-like food, with cigarette butts often mixed in the steamed buns. Li Feng had to look through the garbage for anything edible like old cabbage. In his first winter in the prison, the wardens wouldn't give him any winter clothes, saying that no one had paid for him to get some, so he went through that winter with only a light shirt. Many practitioners at the prison have been tortured to the brink of death and are suffering from heart disease, high blood pressure, and other dangerous symptoms.

After Li Feng was arrested, the burden of supporting the whole family was placed on his wife's shoulders.

His elderly parents are in poor health and worry about their son constantly. Li Feng's young son also misses him terribly. His wife has to find means to support the family and Li Feng's living costs in prison, but can barely make ends meet. The wardens at Xushui Detention Centre have called his family many times asking for money.

In late October of 2007, all of the Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned at the No. 4 Prison went on hunger strike to protest their imprisonment. As many of the practitioners were in failing health, their families asked the prison for medical parole. The prison authorities said that they would let some of the practitioners go home before the Chinese New Year in February 2008, but so far none have been released.

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.cc/mh/articles/2008/5/19/178764.html