70-Year-Old Mr. Wei Yingxin Tortured at Yangjiang Prison

Mr. Wei Yingxin is 70 years old, and a retired medical scientist at the Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Company in Guangzhou City. He continued to live in the company's dormitory following retirement. Below is an account of persecution he was subjected to over the past three years under the Communist regime.

1. Arrested and home ransacked

Police officers from the Yuexiu District of Guangzhou City arrested Mr. Wei Yingxin at the Xincheng Bus Station in Wuyang at 11:00 a.m. on September 12th, 2005. They took him to Daxin Street Police Station. Yuexiu District 610 Office¹ agents, and officers from the Daxin Street and Tonghe Police Stations ransacked his home at 2:40 p.m. that same day. At first they tried to open his front door with a master key, but the door was locked from the inside. Wei's family heard the noise. The police demanded they open the door but the family refused. The police pried the door open with a metal bar that was more than 3.3 feet long. They broke the locks on two stainless steel burglar-proof doors, then all of the officers forced their way in. When the family asked to see their police badge numbers, five officers turned around and left, and the others began turning everything upside down. Following this incident, the police lied to Wei Yingxin, who was in their custody at the time, saying that no one would go near his home. They transferred him to the Yuexiu District Detention Centre in the afternoon of the day of the arrest.

2. Mistreatment in the detention centre

The authorities abused Wei Yingxin at the detention centre. He spiked a fever and vomited blood. His hands shook so violently that he could not hold a pen. His salt-and-pepper hair turned completely white. Once, a Yuexiu District police officer handcuffed him and forced him to sit on the floor, then told Wei to sign a document to renounce his belief. Wei refused, and the officer shoved him against a sharp corner. Mr. Wei immediately lost consciousness from the pain and sustained lower back injuries. He was bedridden for two weeks.

3. Unconstitutional trial

Yuexiu District Court agents subjected Wei Yingxin to an unconstitutional trial on January 25th, 2006. Local officials forbade his wife to audit the trial. Wei Yingxin insisted he did not commit any crime by practising Falun Gong and shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" His 95-year-old mother, who was in the courtroom, burst into tears and yelled, "My son is wronged!" The judge sentenced Wei Yingxin to four years in prison on May 25th, 2006. He was taken to the Yangjiang Prison in Guangdong Province on August 16th, 2006, where he remains incarcerated to this day.

4. Torture at Yangjiang Prison

The prison officials forced Mr. Wei to watch slanderous Falun Gong propaganda on a daily basis. He protested. The guards tortured him by forcing him to bend over at a 90-degree angle, with his arms behind his back, raised toward the ceiling. They made him do this for two hours each time and put a pair of 55 lb. shackles on his feet. His Falun Gong practitioner wife protested. The authorities put her under surveillance and denied her visitation rights for seven months. Even when she was finally allowed to meet with Wei, the guards would pick fault with her and restrict each visit to 15 minutes.

5. Harassment of family

Wei Yingxin's wife and a relative went to visit him at the detention centre on September 27th, 2007. The day before they made the trip, street Party committee officials went to their home and interrogated them. When the family members arrived at the detention centre, swarms of police officers greeted them and kept them under surveillance at all times, from two steps in front and behind. They made the family go through the security checks twice and monitored them during meals and the actual meeting. After they left the facility, officials followed them in a small, unmarked car over a long distance. Once at home, the family members realized some plain-clothes agents were watching them from nearby. The street Party committee head led a group of officials. They harassed the family again early the next morning, doing so because they claimed the family did not notify them prior to the visit, though they clearly knew everything about the trip even before it took place. These persecutors threatened to arrest the family at any time if they "dared to stir up trouble." This seven-day-a-week, 24-hour surveillance has continued to this day.

6. 610 Office agents forbid meeting between elderly mother and son

Wei Yingxin's 97-year-old mother fell ill in March 2008 during his incarceration. Wei's son applied with the officials to grant a meeting between Wei and his mother, but the officials refused. Wei's mother passed away one month later, in April 2008. Unfortunately, her last, simple wish before her death was unfulfilled.

7. Further persecution

When Wei Yingxin's wife saw him in November 2007, Wei told her that prison officials agreed to reduce his sentence by one year. Yet in August 2008, the same officials told his wife that Wei would be held at least until the winter of 2008 or 2009.

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/8/26/184786.html