Mr. Li Hongkui Suffered Seven Years of Torture and Persecution During Two Jail Sentences

Mr. Li Hongkui, an electrician from the Fangzheng Forestry Bureau of Heilongjiang Province, remained steadfast in practising Falun Gong's (also known as Falun Dafa) principles of Truth- Compassion-Forbearance and suffered brutal persecution in jail for the past seven years. He suffered both physical and mental torture. His wife and relatives also endured enormous pressure.

Mr. Li, 54 years old, began to practise Falun Gong in 1996. After he began practising Falun Gong, he tried to follow the requirement of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance in all aspects of his life. In his work unit, he is a good worker. At home, he is a good father and husband. Falun Gong changed him into a man with virtue and good health.

Mr. Li Hongkui went to Beijing in February 2000 to appeal for Falun Gong. The police from Heilongjiang stationed in Beijing arrested him and sent him to their police station in Beijing. There the police took turns interrogating him and did not allow him to go to sleep for 24 hours. The police tried to force him to give up his belief. They confiscated over 200 yuan¹ and did not give him a receipt. They later handcuffed him, took him to Fangzheng Forestry Bureau and detained him in a solitary compartment in the detention centre. He suffered all kinds of torture in the detention centre. One day, guard Zhang Xueshan instigated six criminals to beat him and force him to give up his practice. He did not give in.

Guard Chen Quan ordered criminals to torture Mr. Li by forcing him to adopt the very painful "flying an airplane" posture for several hours. Once he was forced to "fly the airplane" for over four hours. He vomited blood. The criminals that were torturing him let him down since they were afraid that he might die. Because he was persistent in practising Falun Gong and refused to write a so-called guarantee statement to give up his practice, he was sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp in March 2002. The police would not release him when his term expired and continued detaining him.

From February 2000 to May 2003, Mr. Li Hongkui was in the detention centre at Fangzheng Forestry Bureau. He was forced to work over ten hours each day and often suffered beatings and verbal abuse. He protested several times with hunger strikes and suffered brutal forced-feeding. Guard Chen Quan and Liu Qibo beat him for over half an hour one night without any provocation.

May 2003, Mr. Li Hongkui escaped from the detention centre and became homeless for over four months.

On May 20th, 2004, Mr. Li Hongkui put up some Falun Gong banners in a park and was kidnapped by Sun Biwu and others from the national security team in Fanglin. Sun Biwu, Zhang Haicheng, and Li Changhai handcuffed Mr. Li Hongkui's hands to a steam-heating pipe. Each of them held an electric baton and forced him to tell them who he was working with. He did not say anything. They then would shock him repeatedly. Sun Biwu slapped his face and kicked him violently. Zhang Haicheng grabbed his hair and poured water into his mouth. These three men beat him madly from 10 p.m. on May 20 until noon the next day. His face and eyes turned black and his body was covered in black and blue. He sustained several fractures to his ribs. He felt great pain whenever he breathed. He suffered pain all over his body and his clothes were torn apart.

His wife went to see Jiang Feng, the secretary who was in charge and Sun Zhongjie, the head of the political and law committee in charge of persecuting Falun Gong, and staff members of the Procuratorate, to report her husband's beating. None of them admitted the beating and said that his wounds were from his resisting arrest.

He was then sentenced to a four-year term and sent to Hulan Jail in Heilongjiang. In the training unit of Hulan Jail, the guard forced him to watch videos slandering Falun Gong and write a "guarantee letter" to give up his belief. He did not write and suffered punishment. The guard forced him to hold his hands on his back and bent his back 90 degrees and asked the criminals to watch him. He was not allowed to move at all. If he moved, the criminals would beat him up. Sometimes he had to keep that position for over three hours and he kept vomiting. At night, nine people slept on a 1.5-metre wide bed and he could hardly rest. Every day he had to peel garlic for 13 to 14 hours. If he did not finish his task, the guard would order criminals to beat him or verbally abuse him. After being persecuted for over five months at the training unit, he was transferred to No. 13 jail district and detained there. He was released in May 2008.

Note

1. "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/2009/7/7/204044.html