Mr. Zhou Jingcheng from Ningxiang County, Hunan Province Detained, Forced into Labour Camps and Sentenced Ten Times

Mr. Zhou Jingcheng, who works at the Renminnanlu Feed Factory in Ningxiang County, Hunan Province, has been persecuted a total of ten times due to his belief in Falun Gong and for trying to be a good person by following the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. He was directly persecuted by Liu Ziqiang from the county 610 Office¹, along with Hu Jianxin, Liao Wenjian, Cai Mouliang, Zhou Youliang, Xie Pinghui, Zeng Ninghan and others from the county Domestic Security Division. Mr. Zhou was sentenced to prison, sent to a labour camp twice, detained seven times and forced to undergo a variety of tortures. He is currently detained in the Wangling Prison in You County, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province.

Since 1999, Mr. Zhou Jingcheng has spent the majority of his time in jails, and almost 60,000 yuan² has been extorted from his family. Mr. Zhou is now imprisoned and being tortured again, and his family is being harassed and threatened.

In 2003, Mr. Zhou was beaten for five days and nights by officers from the Domestic Security Division of Meijiatian, Yutan Town and Baimaqiao Police Stations. They also handcuffed his hands behind his back and suspended him from the handcuffs tied to window bars for over twenty hours. Other torture methods include sleep deprivation and stripping him, then dousing him with water and turning on a fan to chill him during the winter.

At the Xinkaipu Forced Labour Camp, Mr. Zhou was beaten until his entire body was purple-black with bruises. He sustained an injury to his eyebrow which required five stitches. He was forced to wear a straitjacket, locked in a toilet, and his hands were tied behind his back for a long time, until they were numb and insensitive.

In January 2006, under orders from the county 610 Office, numerous plainclothes officers arrested Mr. Zhou in public at a raw materials wholesale market at the train station. They dragged him into the car, and took him to Jin City for detainment with three people kicking him throughout the journey. After six of his teeth were broken out by the brutal beating, Mr. Zhou was taken to the You County Prison.

The guards didn't let him sleep for six days and nights. They shocked him with electric batons for over an hour, forced him to stand, didn't let him use the toilet, smeared liquid menthol over his eyes, beat him with rubber clubs, and stuck mat grass into his nostrils until they bled. In the winter, Mr. Zhou was sprayed with water, his ribs were broken from beatings, his ear became deformed from being bit, and the ligaments in his legs were injured after the guards forced his legs open at 180 degrees.

Mr. Zhou was handcuffed to a bed for ten days, and he was tied to a bed with cloth rope for almost three months. He was force-fed with a rubber tube forced down his throat to his stomach for over 500 days. The guards ordered other inmates to beat and kick Mr. Zhou over a long period of time. Mr. Zhou was subjected to countless kinds of torture.

Over the years, almost 60,000 yuan was extorted from Mr. Zhou, the majority done without receipts. The You County Prison Instruction Department director, surnamed Wu, took 4000 yuan from Mr. Zhou's family. When Mr. Zhou tried to sue him for the money, he was persecuted instead. A Batang Town 610 Office employee surnamed Tang, along with police officers often harassed him and ransacked his home, causing severe damage to Mr. Zhou's family. His mother, who is over 70 years old, developed depression and died in grief. The You County Prison didn't even allow Mr. Zhou to see his mother for one last time.

Mr. Zhou Jingcheng was tortured to the brink of death at the Wangling Prison in You County, Zhuzhou City. He was released on October 30th, 2007, when the 610 Office and related authorities were afraid to face the responsibility for his mistreatment. However, the stick-thin Mr. Zhou still had no peace. The county 610 Office ordered the local Batang Town Police Station to harass and threaten Mr. Zhou at home. In January 2008, Mr. Zhou was forced to leave home to avoid further persecution. This did not end their persecution, as instead it was extended to his family.

Liu Shiqiang, head of the 610 Office, went to Batang Town personally to oversee the persecution. They summoned Mr. Zhou's brother, Mr. Zhou Jingliang, sister Ms. Zhou Xianglian, wife Ms. Huang Caijun, and cousin Mr. Zhao Shenghua, to threaten them, in search of Mr. Zhou Jingcheng. In mid-March 2008, Jiang Jiehua, the 610 Office assistant director, along with Zeng Ninghan, the captain of the Domestic Security Division, threatened the family members that they must find Mr. Zhou before April 5th, 2008. If not, they would suspend Ms. Zhou Xianglian (a professor at Changsha University) from teaching, close down the feed factory owned by his brother-in-law, Mr. Huang Shucheng, and force Zhou Yuhang (who was studying at the medical school of the Normal University of Hunan Province and already found a job) to be unable to work. The authorities also threatened that they would comb the grounds, going as far as digging three feet into the ground, to search for Mr. Zhou Jingcheng.

In 2008 before the Olympics, the Chinese Communist Party made widespread arrests of Falun Gong practitioners. In July 2008, Mr. Zhou was arrested in Yiyang District, Hunan Province. After torturing him, the Ningxiang County 610 Office and Domestic Security Division secretly imprisoned him at the Wangling Prison in You County, Zhuzhou City.

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.ca/mh/articles/2009/6/11/202554.html