Friends and Family Arrested While Practitioners on Trial in Heilongjiang Province

Note: The following is a shortened version of a longer and more detailed article that appeared on the Minghui.org website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net).

On the morning of November 28th, 2008, four practitioners, including Mr. Zhao Boliang and his mother-in-law, Ms. Zhang Yuhua; Mr. Li Yongsheng; and Mr. Li Haifeng were tried in Xi'an District Court in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. The use of cruel torture was revealed to the court. One of the ways Mr. Li Yongsheng was tortured by domestic security officer Peng Fuming was "Tying the ropes"¹. Mr. Li was also brutally beaten. Lawyer Han Zhiguang from Gongdao Law Firm in Beijing entered a plea of not guilty for Mr. Zhao Boliang.

The Court did not allow spectators to sit in the courtroom for this public trial, and guards chased away all the families who were waiting outside the court. Officers from Domestic Security ordered several dozen police officers to arrest the families and fellow practitioners of the defendants. At least 37 people that were outside the courtroom have gone missing. Some have been taken to a detention centre.

Note

1. "Tying the ropes," one type of brutal torture, refers to putting a thin nylon rope around the back of a person's neck and then wrapping it around both shoulders and down teach arm loop by loop, and then over each hand. As the rope is tightened to its limit, it cuts into the flesh. Both arms are forced behind the back and raised to the extreme, and then both thumbs are tied with a rope that goes around the back of the neck. The person tortured in this way is then kicked to kneel down on the floor. The rope is released about an hour later. Then the person is tied up like this again a second time, then a third time, and so on. See photo illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/18/52553.html, see pencil illustration http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/5/53164.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/12/1/190822.html