Family Members Speak Out in Support of Mr. Liu Yuhe, Who Is Being Tortured in Jilin Prison

Name: Liu Yuhe
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: Unknown
Most recent place of detention: Jilin Prison
City: Jilin City
Province: Jilin Province
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, force-feeding, beatings, torture, electric shock, hanging by handcuffs, solitary confinement

Mr. Liu Yuhe is a Falun Gong practitioner from Huadian City, Jilin Province who is currently detained at the Jilin Prison. His family has repeatedly requested punishment for the people at the prison who beat him, but have never received a reply from prison officials. The captors force-fed Mr. Liu Yuhe ruthlessly when he went on a persecution protest hunger strike.

Liu Yuhe couldn't even take care of himself at one point due to the torture. He was incontinent and on the brink of death. The guards had to take him to the prison hospital for emergency rescue. When his family hired a lawyer to sue the prison, the guards threatened and intimidated the lawyer into dropping the case.

Mr. Liu's family has filed complaints with the Jilin Judicial Bureau and have requested that he be released, so he can rest and recover. Yet the family has heard nothing from the authorities. Below is the family's complaint letter.

"Officials from the Jilin Province Prison Management Bureau went to Jilin Prison in late May 2009 to investigate prison guards Li Yongsheng and Wang Yuanchun. They had designated and instigated detained criminals to torture Mr. Liu Yuhe and injure him severely. Prison officials went to great lengths to cover up their crimes, and as an act of retaliation, placed Mr. Liu in a confinement cell as soon as the investigating officials left.

We have since learned that Mr. Liu was beaten again on November 2nd, 2009, by prison affairs section head Li Yijiao, Strictly Controlled Team guard Sun Fengjun, and prison hospital employee Sun Wen. We went to the prison asking to see Mr. Liu, and called division five. Guard Zhang Meng answered the phone. One guard refused to let us see him, declaring, "He is in the prison hospital." The same guard also verbally abused us. We then hired a lawyer, hoping to protect Liu Yuhe.

On November 13th, 2009, we went to the prison again, and requested to see Mr. Liu. The officials declined our request, saying he was currently in the prison hospital for "strict management." Our lawyer asked to meet with Mr. Liu so he could prepare the paperwork required to represent him. The lawyer was also turned down. Three days later, on the 16th, we went to the prison again, hoping to confirm his health condition. The guards made one excuse after another, blaming each other for their dereliction of duty, and refused to let us see him. They even refused to let us meet with the prosecutor-in-residence.

Below is a brief description of Liu Yuhe's further persecution and mistreatment.

Chuanying Court officials in Jilin City sentenced Liu Yuhe to eight years of incarceration on September 11th, 2007. Once at the Jilin Prison, criminals beat him barbarically numerous times. The beatings were so severe that he became disabled.

Jilin Prison intensified their abuse on July 30th, 2008. That day the guards led many criminals to take him to the Strictly Controlled Team, where they made him sit on a narrow bench from 5:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. When he couldn't sit straight, the guards ordered criminals to hold his neck, while they shocked his head with electric batons.

"Mr. Liu was again sent to the Strictly Controlled Team in October 2008. Sun Fengjun ordered criminals Sun Xinghe, Fan Tiejun and Liang Xinming to hang him by his handcuffed wrists. Two days of this torture caused severe injury to his body. His hands remain numb to this day, and he suffers from intense pain. Mr. Liu was forbidden from using the toilet, and his clothes were soaked with his waste. He was also forced to sit on a bench for more than one month.

On the afternoon of November 28th, 2008, guard Dai Jun once again sent Mr. Liu to the Strictly Controlled Team. At 8:00 a.m. on January 14th, 2009, guards ordered criminals Sun Xinghe, Liang Xinming and Fan Tiejun to beat him. At 7:30 p.m. that day Fan Tiejun called him to the courtyard. Together with Ma Jingyu, Sun Xinghe, and Cui Yong, he stripped off Mr. Liu's clothes, then held him down and barraged him with fists and kicks.

"They said during the beatings, "How can you tell other people about the beatings? You can't say anything, even if it's a fact. Didn't you write letters to the prosecutor to complain about the Strict Management Team? Did you tell on Ma Jingyu and Sun Xinghe? We've long wanted to find excuses to beat you. So today we'll just beat you and see if you can keep your mouth shut!"

Guards Liu Tong and Li were present, yet they didn't say anything. Guard Dong Jian had said, "If we don't beat people, are we still the Strictly Controlled Team?" Under orders from the guards, these criminals didn't stop their beatings until they were exhausted. At 8:10 p.m., criminal Liang Xinming took Liu Yuhe to the toilet where he gave him another round of beatings until blood ran out of his nose and mouth and he couldn't stop vomiting. Such beatings eventually gave the practitioner a heart attack. Fan Tiejun and Ma Jingyu became frightened and forced Mr. Liu to swallow some heart rescue pills.

Mr. Liu was sent to the Strictly Controlled Team again in April 2009. During that time he appealed frequently to the prison and relevant sections about his mistreatment. However, each time the prison officials simply retaliated and sent him to a confinement cell. In addition to covering up their crimes, the guards intensified their mistreatment of Mr. Liu.

More than ten practitioners have now died as a result of similar abuse at Jilin Prison, and Mr. Liu is now in critical condition. We strongly request his release for recovery. We are afraid that the guards may kill him in order to cover up their crimes. We will certainly seek justice in this case.

I request that the instigators and the criminals be punished, and request both criminal and civil compensation for the harm done to my brother Liu Yuhe."

Liu Yufa

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/2/1/217367.html