Mr. Gong Fengqiang Mentally Disabled As a Result of Persecution, Medical Parole Denied

Mr. Gong Fengqiang, a Falun Gong practitioner from Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested in December 2006. He became mentally traumatized as a result of the savage treatment he was subjected to. Despite his condition, the police still sentenced him to five years in prison. Family members repeatedly appealed to different government agencies, the detention centre, and prison officials for medical help for him, but they were ignored.

Mr. Gong Fengqiang	Gong Yu (nine years old), Gong Fengqiang's Daughter

Gong Yu, Mr. Gong Fengqiang's daughter, was seven years old when her father was arrested. She often cries in front her parents' pictures. In one letter she wrote, "Daddy, when you return home, I will give you a cupful of my tears." "Daddy is mentally disabled and he will not recognize me anymore. Daddy does not look like my daddy anymore." Once, Gong Yu saw a lady in the park who looked like her mother. She cried for two nights when she returned to her grandmother's home and did not want to eat for several days. She cried, "That lady was my mother. I saw many people around, so I was afraid to approach her." Gong Yu cried whenever she talked about this to her family, "I saw my mother, but I was afraid to go to her."

Little Gong Yu is anxious to have her parents back. She calls on all kindhearted men and women to rescue her father.

The Persecution of Gong Fengqiang

Mr. Gong Fengqiang, 38 years old, was a miner in the Yilan Coal Mine, a hard-working, honest, and kind man liked by all.

In 2000, Mr. Gong went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. He was arrested and detained in Yilan County for 34 days. While in detention, the county police tortured him brutally. They beat him, pushed tooth-picks under his fingernails, and rubbed his ribs with sharp-edged, hard objects. Once the police used electric batons to shock him, making him vomit and lose control of his bowels. In the meantime, police officers Han Yunjie (who later died unexpectedly) and Liu Chen ransacked Mr. Gong's home. It was winter. They even took the family's pots and pans. Liu Chen threatened Mr. Gong's wife, saying, "If we can't make you suffer, we will make your husband suffer." (Mr. Gong's wife was pregnant at the time.)

At 9:00 p.m. on August 12th, 2000, police officers from Yilan County, agents from the Dalianhe Coal Mine 610 Office¹, and Dalianhe Town Police Station officers barged into Mr. Gong's home with reporters and TV cameras. They were there to arrest him. His daughter was not even a month old. After the police took him away, his mother chased after the police and fainted. The police's search left their home in complete chaos.

On December 26th, 2000, Gong Fengqiang and his wife and their five-month-old daughter went to Beijing to appeal. They were arrested. Refusing to cooperate with the authorities, the wife took her daughter and left home to avoid police harassment. Company officials sent Gong Fengqiang to the Yilan County Detention Centre on December 31st, 2000. Police officer Han Yunjie then brutally beat him. Mr. Gong was sentenced to two years of forced labour and continued to be held in detention. This lasted until he appeared to be critically ill from the cruel treatment, and he was then released.

In September 2003, Dalianhe Coal Mine 610 Office agents Lu Guocheng, Yu Ping, and Li Fengguang attempted to capture Mr. Gong and his wife and take them to Shuangcheng Brainwashing Centre. (Gong Yu was only four years old then.) They arranged for people to monitor their house 24 hours a day. Later they decided to take Mr. Gong directly from work to the brainwashing centre. Mr. Gong escaped and left home for three months. After he returned, he discovered that Dalianhe Coal Mine 610 Office agents had fired him from his job without processing any paperwork.

Wang Changting, the director of the Second Mine District, said when he fired Gong Fengqiang, "I have written three reports to the company to fire him. This time, they finally approved." In May 2006, Mr. Gong and his wife went to visit Wang Changting. But Wang did not want to admit what he had said. Wang Changting and Zhao Yougao, the new Director of the 610 Office, also attempted to force Mr. Gong to write a "guarantee statement" to renounce Falun Gong but Mr. Gong refused firmly. By this time he had become a tricycle driver to make a living.

On December 12th, 2006, Sun Biwu, the security section chief of Fangzheng Forestry Bureau, along with policemen Shi Zhiping and Tan Yanshu and local police, broke into Mr. Gong's house. They took 300 yuan² from Mr. Gong's pocket and 600 yuan from his wife's purse. They also took 7300 yuan from a relative who was visiting the family. The same night, police officers Sun Biwu, Shi Zhiping, and Tan Yanshu beat Mr. Gong so brutally that he lost his eyesight. Then they arrested Mr. Gong and took him to Fangzheng Forestry Bureau. Mr. Gong's wife decided to leave home to avoid further persecution, leaving their seven-year-old daughter at home with her parents.

At Fangzheng Forestry Bureau Police Department, Gong Fengqiang was tortured. The police beat him brutally, and he passed out several times. They then poured cold water on him to revive him. After several days of torture, he was transferred to Yilan County Detention Centre. He was not able to walk and had to be carried from the car.

Detained at the Yilan First Detention Centre, Mr. Gong collapsed mentally several times from the beatings. He bit his tongue, causing permanent damage. He also lost consciousness and could not recognize anyone, but the guards did not release him. Despite his condition, the Yilan court still sentenced him to a five-year prison term.

During the detention and trial, Mr. Gong suffered recurring mental problems. His family asked Li Bohe, the deputy director of Yilan County Police Department in charge of the detention centres and the deputy head of the 610 Office, to have Mr. Gong treated and pleaded with him to release Mr. Gong, but Li refused. By May 24th, 2007, officers from the county police department and the detention centre transferred him, unconscious and not having had any food for four days, to the Group Training Team in Xianglan Prison in Tangyang County, where Mr. Gong endured continued abuse.

Mr. Gong's family went to the Group Training Team, explained his condition to the officials, and asked for medical care. The guards said, "We can do whatever we want to Falun Gong practitioners according to orders from the Party. As long as he can breathe, we have to keep him here. We will not let him go, even if he dies."

On June 4th, 2007, they transferred Mr. Gong to Lianjiangkou Prison in Jiamusi City after he was tortured for ten days in Xianglan Prison.

In the summer of 2007, the family made an adamant request for a medical exam. Prison officials made the family pay 1,500 yuan for transportation and medical costs. No family member was allowed to be present at his examination. Gong Fengqiang still lacked proper care, and his condition got worse.

In March 2008, Mr. Gong's health deteriorated still further. Lianjiangkou Prison officials had to send him for another exam. He was evaluated as "mentally disabled and not capable of serving the prison term." The family requested a medical parole, but the prison used the excuse of the Olympics to postpone it. After the Paralympic Games, the family sent in another request. The prison used another excuse--that the diagnosis report was over six months old--and forced the family to spend money on another exam. The prison administration is still proffering different excuses to postpone processing the request for a medical parole.

Gong Yu's mother decided to leave home to avoid police harassment. The girl's grandmother (Gong Fengqiang's mother) suffers from heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and several other ailments. She worries about her son. Grandpa suffers from recurring illness, yet he tries to ask people for help for his mentally traumatized son, that he might soon recover his health and return home. Nevertheless, his visits to all the authorities have only gotten him cold shoulders, excuses, rebukes, and even intimidation.

We urge kindhearted individuals to pay attention to Mr. Gong's case and help to rescue him and the other practitioners.

Related articles: Seven-year-old Girl's Misery http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/4/5/96112.html

Practitioner Mr. Gong Fengqiang Suffers Continued Abuse after Mental Collapse at Jiamusi Prison in Heilongjiang Province, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/6/29/87172.html

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. "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.org/mh/articles/2008/10/30/188884.html