Mr. Pan Benyu from Qiqihar Tortured to the Verge of Death

Mr. Pan Benyu from Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, has been savagely tortured in Tailai Prison. As a result, he suffers from a heart condition and liver ascites, and has been vomiting blood. He has swelling in his brain and other areas of his body. In addition, he has many blood scabs in his nose and has great difficulty eating, sleeping, and breathing. His health is extremely poor and he is at risk of dying. The prison guards threatened Mr. Pan that if he did not renounce Falun Gong, the prison would not allow him to leave on medical bail. On May 22nd, 2009, not wanting to take responsibility for his death, the prison and the 610 Office¹ notified Mr. Pan's family to take him home.

Mr. Pan is a good person that is well respected in the community. He once saved four people from drowning in the Liu Park in the city, as well as two children from the train tracks near his home. He has led his life according to the principles of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, yet he has been subjected to severe persecution.

Mr. Pan wanted to take several days off to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong when the persecution started in 1999. He was place under house arrest and confined to his office, so his family had to bring him food. In September 1999, staff from his workplace and officers from Qitie Police Station took him to Jiagedaqi Party School to brainwash him for two months. Later, officers from Qitie Police Station took him to Qiqihar Nianzishan Forced Labour Camp, where he remained for one year.

The guards in Nianzishan Forced Labour Camp beat Mr. Pan every day. One of them hit Mr. Pan in the head with a plastic hose dozens of times. On cold winter days, the guards sprayed him with frigid water for a couple of hours at a time. He couldn't walk because of the beatings. He ate very little. Often he was only allowed to sleep sitting in a chair. He wrote an appeal letter but the guards took it away and started to monitor him. He had to dig holes from sunrise to sundown and was beaten if he was slow. He was released on June 16th, 2000.

After he was released, he tried to go back to work. Manager Zhang Yujing and Secretary Dong Xia told him that he was fired and that the company could do nothing for him.

In July 2000, Mr. Pan left home to go to Beijing. His house was searched right after he left. When he arrived in Beijing, the streets were full of security personnel and police officers. Mr. Pan's ID was taken away by the authorities so he couldn't check into a hotel and had to sleep on the street. On July 22nd, 2000, a police officer ran over Mr. Pan with a motorcycle on Tiananmen Square while he was doing the Falun Gong exercises. The motorcycle crushed his leg. A few police officers dragged him over to a small house and beat him. He was later taken to Qitie Detention Centre. Qiqihar Railroad Bureau sentenced him to a year in prison. He was detained in Fuyu Forced Labour Camp in October 2000.

Mr. Pan and many other practitioners were locked in a big ward. Practitioners Mr. Li Qi and Mr. Ma Yong refused to watch the videos that slandered Falun Gong, so guard Jia Weijun brutally beat and shocked them with electric batons. Mr. Wang Baoxian yelled at Jia, telling him not to torture the practitioners. Mr. Pan tried to stop the torture. A few prisoners knocked him down and held him on the ground. One day Jia instigated prisoners to beat Mr. Pan in a pig shed. Mr. Pan fainted, so Jia poured boiling water on him to wake him up. Mr. Pan had blisters all over his body as a result. Mr. Pan was not allowed to eat or go to the toilet afterwards.

On June 18th, 2001, Mr. Ma, Mr. Li, Mr. Zhang Xiaochun, and another 29 practitioners wrote a statement demanding to be released without charges. Jia instigated other prisoners to beat the practitioners. Mr. Pan's nose bled and he lost a tooth. Jia yelled, "Just beat them and I will take responsibility if they die."

Afterward, Mr. Ma, Mr. Li, and Mr. Wang were taken to Fuyu Detention Centre. Mr. Wang openly denounced the centre for their criminal acts. A guard slapped him and instigated inmate Lin Liguo to beat Mr. Wang. Mr. Wang's internal organs failed as a result of this severe beating and he died shortly thereafter. Mr. Zhang went on a hunger strike to protest Mr. Wang's death. An inmate beat him, leaving him with a one-inch wound next to his eye. Mr. Zhang was force-fed with very concentrated salt water, and he died.

On July 5th, 2001, Mr. Pan was taken to Fuyu Detention Centre. The guards there beat him when he did the Falun Gong exercises. The guards slapped a leather belt across his face, and his face was mutilated. The guards put handcuffs on Mr. Pan and locked him in an iron cage.

Mr. Pan was tried in Fuyu Court. His case was eventually dismissed by the supreme court. The 610 Office refused to let him go after the trial and locked him in Fuyu Detention Centre for over a year. During that time, Mr. Wang and Mr. Zhang died as a result of torture. To prevent other practitioners from leaking information about the practitioners' deaths, the guards encouraged the court to rush through their trials. Eventually Mr. Ma was sentenced to five years and Mr. Pan received four years. They were quickly transferred to Beian Prison.

On August 22nd2002, Mr. Pan was transferred to Tailai Prison. The prisoners beat him savagely because he wanted to appeal. In March 2003, Mr. Pan gave his letter of appeal to guard Zhang Jiao. In July, Zhang told him it was useless because the country had outlawed Falun Gong. Mr. Pan wrote another letter, exposing Jiang Zemin (then-Premiere of China) for the crime of initiating the persecution of Falun Gong. Guards in Beian Prison locked him in a solitary cell and chained him down on the concrete ground. He stayed in the same position 24 hours a day. One day he told a guard he had blood in his urine, and the guard yelled and scolded him.

Mr. Pan said, "I vomited blood." The guard answered, "You deserve it!" Mr. Pan replied, "Unlock the cuffs. My arms, ribs, and wrists are bleeding and festering because of the rubbing." The guard said, "Are you threatening me? I will put flies on your wound and let maggots grow on them." "Unlock the cuffs. I need to empty my bowels," Mr. Pan stated. "Do it in your trousers," replied the guard. Mr. Pan could not believe what he was hearing: "Why are you doing this?" "I need to show the prison some progress," answered the guard. "As long as you sign letters to renounce Falun Gong, I will release you immediately." Mr. Pan refused to sign.

Staying in the same position for a prolonged period of time, Mr. Pan's muscles atrophied. One day a man from the provincial justice bureau came to visit the prison, Mr. Pan yelled out to him, explaining how he was tortured and how two other practitioners had died. The guard claimed that Mr. Pan had a mental disorder.

Two weeks later, a guard took all the cuffs off Mr. Pan. He could no longer move his arms. His blood pressure was 60/30 mmHg and he was in a coma. On June 18th, 2005, he was released from Tailai Prison.

Mr. Pan recovered at home and started to tell people about the persecution he suffered. On April 30th, 2006, the police came to wreck his house. He was forced to leave home. On December 8th, 2006, Mr. Pan went to his parents' house and two police officers arrested him. In the police station, an official named Wang from the Tiefeng District 610 Office handcuffed him to a heating pipe and beat him until he passed out. Wang kicked his abdomen until blood came out of his anus. Two days later he was taken to Qiqihar First Detention Centre. Wang continued to torture Mr. Pan until his heart, liver, and kidneys failed. Mr. Pan was sent to Qiqihar Second Hospital for emergency treatment.

On April 18th, 2007, Mr. Pan was taken to Tailai Prison, where the torture continued. He was released when he was near death.

In the past ten years, many Falun Gong practitioners in Qiqihar have died as a result of the persecution. Many lost their jobs and many cannot return home. Some of them are still in prison. Currently, 40 Falun Gong practitioners are being tortured in Tailai Prison. Mr. Lu Yuping died on May 30th, 2009, in Tailai Prison because of torture. Mr. Liu Jingming died on March 24th, 2007, in Tailai Prison because of torture. Mr. Xu Linshan died in December 2005 as a result of being tortured in Tailai Prison. Mr. Pan Hongdong died on May 15th, 2005, as a result of being tortured in Tailai Prison.

Tailai Prison in Heilongjiang Province
Warden: Zhang Zhicheng
Political commissioner: Du Yingchao
Deputy warden: Yu Zhenhai

Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2009/4/17/106581.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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/7/12/204419.html