Older Practitioner Mr. Lu Zhenxiang Vomited Blood as a Result of Forced Feedings

Name: Lu Zhengxiang
Gender: Male
Age: 65
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Former Employee at the fishery of the Saicheng Lake Plantation in Jiujiang County, Jiangxi Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 21st, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Shili Detention Centre in Jiujiang City
City: Jiujiang
Province: Jiangxi
Persecution Suffered: Detention, Torture, Forced Feeding, Physical Restraint, Extortion
Key Persecutors: Huang Liang, Ma Zuoyue

On the morning of July 21st, 2009, Mr. Lu Zhenxiang was reported by Gui Jiaxiang, head of the Fourth Unit of Aimin Village, Yong-an Township, Jiujiang County, where he was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. He was arrested by Huang Liang, chief of the Yong-an Township Police Station, and other officers. On the same evening, he was sent to the Shili Detention Centre by officers Feng Jianping and Cai Meng.

Mr. Lu firmly believed that he was merely exercising his constitutional rights to freedom of belief and freedom of speech when he was speaking out for justice for Falun Gong. There was nothing wrong with his conduct, and he did not violate any laws. One week after he was detained, he went on a hunger strike to protest.

Ten days later the detention centre, with help from the Jiujiang City No. 1 Hospital and the Jiujiang City Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, began to force feed Mr. Lu. They inserted a plastic tube from his nose to his stomach while handcuffing his hands behind his back, with one hand pulled back from his shoulder to his back. They left the plastic tube in Mr. Lu after the forced feeding and spread his arms and feet fully outwards before tying them down to a plank bed with handcuffs and shackles. This torture is also known as bounding to a death bed.

After two days and one night, Mr. Lu began to vomit blood. When the doctor removed the plastic tube, they found that Mr. Lu's oesophagus and stomach were full of blood. Yet the officers at the detention centre still asked the doctor; "Can we continue with the forced feeding?" The doctor replied no. Since Mr. Lu was extremely weak and on the verge of death, the two hospitals who participated in the forced feeding dared not to admit him. It was at that time when the detention centre notified Mr. Lu's family and asked them to come and bail him out pending his trial.

In the afternoon of August 8th, 2009, when Mr. Lu's son went to get his father, he burst into tears after he saw his father covered with blood. The detention centre extorted 1,000 yuan¹ from his son under the name "medical expense" before they released Mr. Lu.

Since 1999, Mr. Lu has been detained seven times, and his pension has been suspended. He was sentenced to a five-year term in 2002. In 2008 he was sentenced to eighteen months of forced labour for participating in a group Falun Gong book reading. The latest arrest took place shortly after he was released from the forced labour camp on parole for medical treatment. Officer Feng Jianping threatened Mr. Lu and said: " I can arrest you at any time."

Mr. Lu's wife Ms. Wang Shifan, 63, is known for being a decent, honest person. She refused to falsify the accounts when she was working as an accountant at the Saicheng Lake Plantation. She has been illegally detained three times, two of which she was sent to the forced labour camp. She is currently being held at the Nanchang Women's Forced Labour Camp serving an eighteen-month term.

Huang Liang, chief of the Yong-an Township Police Station under the Balihu Public Security Department in Jiujiang City: 86-792-6840074 (Office), 86-792-6811578 (Home), 86-13607023899 (Mobile)
Ma Zuoyue, director of the Jiujiang City Detention Centre: 86-13507061660 (Mobile)

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/9/6/207845.html