Mr. Zhou Xiangyang and Mr. Li Yuanyong Brutally Mistreated in Gangbei Prison, Tianjin City

Zhou Xiangyang, 32, was an engineer at the Railroad Department's Third Investigation and Design Institute. A Falun Gong practitioner, he was sentenced to nine years in prison and taken to Gangbei Prison in Tianjin City. In 2005, prison guards confined Mr. Zhou in a solitary cell simply because he protested the brainwashing he was forced to endure.

Near the end of 2005, guard Zhang Shilin was promoted to Chief of the No. 5 Division in Gangbei. Under his orders, the guards from the No. 5 Division separately and secretly imprisoned several steadfast practitioners. They ordered several hardened criminal inmates to take turns brutally beating those practitioners. According to other inmates, the practitioners were inhumanely treated.

Zhang Shiling also ordered audiotapes that slandered Falun Gong to be played in the presence of the practitioners. When the tape started, Mr. Zhou Xiangyang suddenly roared like a lion, "Stop the lies!" Several inmates jumped up and beat Mr. Zhou. He was put in a solitary cell.

The eight inmates who routinely monitored Mr. Zhou tied up his arms and legs and put him on the floor. They either beat him or read aloud the materials that slandered Falun Gong, day and night. In order to protest this treatment, Mr. Zhou went on a hunger strike. For this, he was tortured even more brutally. Later on, the guards took Mr. Zhou to Tianjin Prison and brought practitioner Mr. Li Yuanyong back to Gangbei Prison.

Mr. Li Yuanyong was determined not to wear the prison uniform [Note: because practitioners have committed no crime and should not be incarcerated, they sometimes protest the persecution by refusing to wear the prison uniform, recite the prison regulations, or do forced labour]. The eight inmates who monitored Mr. Li didn't allow him to use the toilet, get out of bed, or to move around in the cell, day or night. They beat Mr. Li in the evenings. Whenever the inmates beat him he would shout, "They are beating people" to try to stop their wicked conduct. Now Mr. Li is very weak due to the severe mistreatment.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/5/12/178270.html