Brutal Tortures at Jilin Prison

Jilin Prison is the second largest in Jilin Province and holds about 2,800 long-term detainees. The prison has its own set of policies and rules, including a policy which allows brutal torture of detained Falun Gong practitioners. This has resulted in the deaths of thirteen practitioners and permanent disability for many others. Torture methods included long-term solitary confinement, the "Stretch Bed," forcing practitioners to sit on a coarse wooden board for a long time, severe beatings, burning with cigarettes and dousing with boiling water, shoving filthy rags into the practitioners' mouths, and jabbing the practitioners with needles.

The following 13 practitioners have died from severe abuse at the Jilin Prison over the past few years: Liu Chengjun, Lei Ming, Zhang Jianhua, He Yuanhui, Lin Shixiong, Wei Xiushan, Sun Changde, Cao Hongyan, Wang Guiming, Cui Weidong, Hao Yingqiang, Wang Qibo and Yang Guang.

Description of Tortures

Stretch Bed: This was one of the major torture methods used between 2002 and 2008 to abuse Falun Gong practitioners. Four metal plates about 0.1 m [4 inches] thick are tied to four ropes hanging from the ceiling. Each plate has 18 threaded holes and handcuffs can be attached to each hole. The holes allow the persecutors to adjust the handcuffs based on the length of the victim's body. Four metal plates are affixed to the four bed poles.

Reenactment of a practitioner being tortured on a Stretch Bed

The victim is stripped naked, and one hand is first handcuffed and the handcuff is fixed onto a metal plate. Then the torturers grab the victim's other hand, use their feet to brace against victim's body, and stretch the victim's other hand towards another metal plate and fix it with a handcuff. Thus the victim's arms are first stretched, and their body is up in the air.

Then the legs are brutally stretched and the ankles are affixed with handcuffs to the opposite sides of the bed. The victim's entire body thus hangs in the air above the bed with their limbs stretched out, fixed on the four poles of the bed. The perpetrators, who are often inmates incited by the guards to torture practitioners, usually put a sharp object on the bed right underneath the victim's lower back where the kidneys are located. If the victim allows his body to droop, the sharp object would stab him. All joints of the victim's body are stretched immediately, causing excruciating pain. The persecutors put a rubber ball into the victim's mouth immediately after they affix the victim's limbs in place, to keep the victim from shouting out in agony. Within a few minutes, the weight of the victim's body causes skin, tendons, and flesh to be torn and joints to be dislocated. Victims subjected to this torture sustain permanent disability or even die after only a few minutes.

Death Bed: This is another major torture method used on Falun Gong practitioners between 2002 and 2008. The victim is stripped naked and shackled onto a bed in a spread-eagle posture, with his arms and legs handcuffed to the four bed poles. The main difference between this torture and the Stretch Bed is that the victim's body is not in the air. Although the Death Bed does not cause the piercing pain as does the Stretch Bed, long-term, absolute immobility causes severe pain, numbness in the victim's limbs, loss of consciousness, and can lead to disability or even death.

Reenactment of Death Bed torture

Strait Sack [straight jacket]: This is another major torture method used since the autumn of 2008 in this prison. The prison made a one-piece sack about 170 cm [5.6 ft] long with a zip and a tiny opening for the victim's mouth, so he can breathe. The victim's hands and body are tied up or taped, then he is forced inside the sack, and the zip is pulled up or sack is tied up, which is so tight that he cannot move, and he lays on the floor like a dead person. The victim suffers from shortness of breath after a short time. The guards then order inmates to beat and kick the victim, causing disability and sometimes death.

The Big Hang-up: This torture is administered inside a solitary confinement cell. The persecutors handcuff the victim to a huge metal ring that is affixed to a chain or rope on a wall. Then the abusers pull the ring up, lifting the victim's body upward, with the tips of his feet barely touching the ground. Soon the victim loses all sensation in his arms, cutting off the blood circulation over time, possibly resulting in permanent disability or even death

Reenactment photo: The Big Hang-up torture

Sitting Board: The Strictly Controlled Division contains over a dozen rows of coarse wooden benches. The benches in the front rows are less than 6 cm wide [2.4 inches] and are 30 cm [11.8 inches] tall, and the other benches are slightly wider. The practitioners are forced to sit on the benches from 4:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. daily. Their buttocks ulcerate over time. They are forbidden to make any movement at all during the entire time. Inmates assigned to monitor the practitioners strike them if they make any spontaneous movement. Practitioners who resisted this torture were savagely beaten or tortured with the Big Hang-up.

Reenactment photo of the Sitting Board torture

Witness Accounts

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Diao Shujun is from Baicheng City, Jilin Province and was taken to Jilin Prison in 2003. Guard Liu Tiejun wanted to create an atmosphere of terror the day that practitioner Diao Shujun was brought in, so he forced Mr. Diao to sit on a wooden bench and ordered inmates to watch him. They forbade him from talking to anyone, and prevented him from using the toilet. He was forced to sit between 4:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. daily. When he protested, or if he did not sit up straight, the inmate would beat him.

Guard Zhang Guilin subjected Mr. Diao to the Stretch Bed, claiming he disobeyed orders. They tortured him on the Stretch Bed for more than thirty minutes. Guard Xu Zhigang was afraid Diao Shujun would die, so he let Mr. Diao down and made him sit on the wooden bench for a long time.

Guard Li Yongsheng sent a group of practitioners including Diao Shujun to solitary confinement cells (or the "Correction Centre") in 2004. There, they shackled the practitioners onto Death Beds. The inmates shoved a filthy rag into Diao Shujun's mouth and poured boiling water on his belly where huge blisters immediately appeared. They would not release him from the Death Bed, even for toilet use. He had to relieve himself on the bed. The inmate would put a urine basin under his buttocks, and removed it even before he would urinate, so the urine was all over the bed under his buttocks. Because of being fixed on the Death Bed for a long time, his tail bone eventually became stressed and developed inflammation. He was soaked in urine, and his wounds festered quickly. When he needed to defecate, they put a piece of hard foam or wood beneath his back and a pan under his buttocks. He became incontinent, and yet he could not defecate. The inmates force-fed him mannitol (an artificial sweetener) and gave him a soapy enema. Mannitol used over a long time can cause nausea, vomiting, hypo-tension, hypertension, tachycardia, fever and angina-like chest pains. Diao Shujun staged a protest hunger strike and was taken to the prison hospital emergency room when he was near death. He suffered from severe pneumonia that has tormented him to this day. His stomach still carries scars of the severe burns.

Practitioner Mr. Zhang Wenfeng is from Dehui City, Jilin Province. Mr. Zhang was held in Cell 509 in Building Five, Group 3, Division 3 at the prison. Certain inmates drugged his dinner and allegedly raped him after he lost consciousness from the drugged food. When he woke up the next morning with a foggy head, he found sticky, filthy substances on his private parts and had terrible neck pain. He suspected the inmates physically and sexually assaulted him, and injured him.

When he woke up the morning of September 17th or 18th, 2008, he had a swollen head and blurry eyesight. He felt very weak. It was a hot day. He pulled up his sleeves at noon in the middle of forced labor and discovered a needle mark on his right wrist. He immediately realized the inmates injected him with unknown drugs while he slept, making him experience strange sensations.

Zhang Wenfeng was held in the Strictly Controlled Group for some time and held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Guard Sun Fengjun ordered inmate Fan Tiejun to drag him into solitary confinement cell and torture him with the Big Hang-up. He was handcuffed and hung up so his feet barely touched the ground. Mr. Zhang lost consciousness after about thirty minutes. The inmates finally opened the handcuffs and asked him, "Will you eat now?" Mr. Zhang said, "No!" They taped his entire body very tightly and then put him in the specially made sack, and zipped the front so he could not make a move. They dumped him on the ground, immobile, and left him there for an entire day and night. They then beat and kicked him. After Mr. Zhang nearly suffocated and his life was in danger, he eventually agreed to resume eating.

During his three months in the Strictly Controlled Division Mr. Zhang suffered constant, severe neck pain after the suspected attack from inmates while he was drugged. He also suffered chest tightness, headaches and loss of consciousness on numerous occasions. He is now held at Division 9 at Jilin Prison and was taken back again to the Strictly Controlled Division in April 2009.

Practitioner Liu Yuhe is from Huadian City, Jilin Province. Liu Yuhe was transferred from Division 5 to the Strictly Controlled Division in October 2008 where he was tortured with the Big Hang-up. His hands were disabled after two days of this torture. To this day he has no feeling in his hands. They would not let him use the restroom and thus he had to relieve himself in his clothing when he was subjected to the Big Hang-up.

Guard Dai Jun again locked Liu Yuhe in solitary confinement cell the afternoon of November 28th, 2008.

Inmates Sun Xinghe, Liang Xinming and Fan Tiejun savagely beat him at 8:00 a.m. on January 14th, 2009. Inmate Fan Tiejun called Liu Yuhe outside the division at 7:30 p.m. that day. Inmates Fan Tiejun, Ma Jingyu, Sun Xinghe and Cui Yong stripped Liu Yuhe naked, forced him to sit on the ground and beat him senseless. Inmate Liang Xinming took Liu Yuhe to the restroom at 8:10 p.m. and beat him again, until Liu Yuhe vomited nonstop and he bled from his nose and mouth. He suffered severe internal injuries and a heart attack. Inmates Fan Tiejun and Ma Jingyu panicked and made Liu Yuhe take some pills to treat his heart attack before letting him go back to the cell. He was held at Division 5 and then was sent to the Strictly Controlled Division in April 2009.

Reenactment photo: flicking the eyeballs

Practitioner Tan Qiucheng is from Yushu City, Jilin Province. He was tortured with the Stretch Bed in 2004 at the Strictly Controlled Division. This torture nearly killed him. He protested by biting his tongue, bleeding profusely on the bed. Inmate Xu Zhigang put him down and shackled him to the Death Bed. His limbs were in a fixed position for a long time. During the several months that Tan Qiucheng was held at the Strictly Controlled Division he was savagely tortured and was left with severe disabilities. He is still being tortured at Division 5.

Practitioner Zhang Hongwei is from Tonghua City, Jilin Province. On the day he was sent to Division 10, the guards forced him to sit on a wooden bench from 4:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. They ordered inmates to watch him and forbade him from speaking. He was allowed to use the toilet only during brief times dictated by the guards. The inmates gave him the only food he had during the day, which was very little. The inmates used their fingers to flick his eyeballs and nose, and also pulled out his eyebrows and head hair. Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, the abusers tortured him with the Stretch Bed and the Sitting Board. The tortures resulted in him developing serious illnesses. He is now being persecuted at the prison hospital.

Practitioner Sun Qian is from Dehui City, Jilin Province was tortured in the solitary confinement cell from the day he was sent to the prison with the Big Hang-up, and his feet did not touch the ground. He was later shackled to the Death Bed with limbs fixed, and savagely force-fed. He was subsequently tortured with the Stretch Bed and Sitting Board. Over the past few years, guards Li Yongsheng and Wang Yuanchun have tortured Mr. Sun cruelly. He is now held at Division 2.

Reenactment photo: Cruel force-feeding

Practitioner Shi Wenzhuo is from Jiutai City, Jilin Province. Guards Li Yongsheng and Wang Yuanchun often abused him. They tortured him with the Stretch Bed and the Death Bed. Guards Li Yongsheng, Wu Qingdong and Bai Yue savagely beat him, which made him have several heart attacks, and he almost died. He was forced to sit on a wooden bench for extend periods of time, which caused severe pain. He is now held at Division 3.

Practitioner Jin Longzhe is from Yanji City, Jilin Province. He is now held at Division 4 and was subjected to gross mistreatment on many occasions. He was sent to the Strictly Controlled Division in April 2009, where he was savagely tortured.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/5/15/200952.html