Falun Gong Practitioners Cruelly Tortured in Tianjin City Prison

Li Qiang (male) is the warden of Ward Eight in the Tianjin City Prison where Falun Gong practitioners are detained. The deputy warden is Lu Wenyuan, who has been promoted because he is especially active in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, and the section leader is Fan Yasheng (male). Some of the guards who are particularly vicious towards imprisoned practitioners include Yang Bo, Liu Yunling, Bu (given name unknown), and Wang (given name unknown).

Practitioners in the prison are routinely tortured for long periods of time. For example, they are forced to sit on a narrow bench without moving from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and are not allowed to talk. If they do anything the guards dislike, they are cursed or punched.

In another example, guard Fan Yasheng burned Mr. Zhou Changhe's beard and chin with a lighter when he was trying to force Mr. Zhou to renounce Falun Gong. The burn was so serious that it left a scar.

One of the criminal inmates, Yu Yonghong, was specifically assigned to torment Falun Gong inmates. He forced them to sit on a low bar only about two fingers wide and 1.3 inches high all day long. Practitioners Mr. Gao Fengcun, Liu Zhen'gang, Cao Baoyu, Wang Jiasheng, Liu Haibin, Ding Guangcheng, and Song Zhishan were forced to sit until they developed bleeding ulcers on their backsides.

Whenever practitioners refused to renounce Falun Gong, they are shackled with handcuffs and leg irons weighing over 20 pounds and locked into a small cell¹. Criminal inmates are given the job of monitoring practitioners and forcing them to move around. The metal shackles have caused the skin on practitioners including Mr. Li Xiwang, Mr. Li Yuanyong, Mr. Xu Xiaolong, Mr. Zhang Jinzhong, and Mr. Han Tieqiang to break and start to bleed. Specifically, guard Lu Wenyuan (male) ordered Mr. Xu Xiaolong to walk in a hallway while wearing shackles until Mr. Xu's feet were bleeding. In addition, guard Liu Yunling (male) tortured Mr. Li Yuanyong and Mr. Xiao Xile many times and participated in force-feeding them.

Another criminal inmate, Hong Yuan, was ordered by the guards to force practitioners to recite articles slandering Falun Gong all day long. He deprived practitioners of sleep until they had memorized the articles. Many practitioners, including Mr. Gao Fengcun, Mr. Li Yuanyong, and Mr. Hua Lianyou, had high blood pressure and were therefore mentally tortured. Mr. Zhu Guanghua's leg was broken by one of the people assigned to watch him.

Recently guard Yang Bowen (male) beat practitioner Mr. Wei Guanghua until he was no longer able to walk because of a hip injury. Yang Bo (male) is a section leader who has boasted about being a key person in the torture of practitioners. He has tortured Mr. Cai Lirong and locked him in a small cell for a long time until Mr. Cai became mentally confused.

In order to brainwash practitioners, guards also make use of a boom box turned on high volume that plays fabricated stories slandering Falun Gong. They also sometimes punish practitioners by forcing them to stand upright for long periods of time until their feet are swollen. The cursing and beating of practitioners has become routine.

Guards can earn promotions and criminal inmates can have their terms shortened if they are "effective" at getting Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith. This gives them the incentive to be even more brutal. The new director of the prison, Guo (male, given name unknown), and the department director, Jia (male, given name unknown), have openly declared that they want to torture Mr. Wei Guanghua to death.

Note

1. Small cell - The detainee is confined alone in a very small cell. The guards handcuff the practitioner behind the back in a fixed position, so that he or she can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. A bucket in the cell serves as the toilet. Only half of a regular meal is served each day. During the night rats run about. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/8/2/183247.html