Persecution Cases of Practitioners Detained in Beijing Qianjin Prison

Chinese Communist Party authorities continue to imprison and abuse Falun Gong practitioners at Beijing Qianjin Prison. Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners are tortured here every day. Listed here are a few examples:

Mr. Pang You: Mr. Pang, from Beijing, was previously sentenced to eight years in Beijing Qianjin Prison. He recently received an additional sentence of four years, and is currently on a hunger strike to protest. In response, more than ten prison guards, including Chen Jun, have taken turns to torture him. His body is extremely emaciated, and his family is very concerned.

Chen Jun, the former warden of the Twelfth Ward of the prison, was transferred to work in the Ninth Ward to take on Mr. Pang. More than ten prison guards take turns carrying out the so-called "transformation" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] of Mr. Pang, however, they are flustered by his resoluteness in Falun Gong. Mr. Ji Liewu, Mr. Wang Zhiwen, and other practitioners are detained in the Ninth Ward, located on the lower level of the prison building. Commands are blared through a loudspeaker. In each cell, Falun Gong practitioners are kept facing the wall either standing or sitting for a long time, and the people nearby are not allowed to speak to them. There are others locked in a small dark room, forced to sit upright, motionless, on small plastic stools, starting from 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. until midnight or later.

Mr. Pang's son, Pang Haiyang, has been forced to transfer schools, and continues to suffer psychological trauma from his father's ordeal. During his time in prison, Mr. Pang was shackled whenever he was allowed to walk outside, and he was often shocked with electric batons. When he went on a hunger strike, the prison guards surrounded him and assaulted him with electric batons. He has changed dramatically during the past eight years, losing a lot of hair and a few teeth. He cannot keep his back upright because of pain, and he needs to use his hand to support his back.

Mr. Zhang Yanbin: Mr. Zhang is a retired veteran from Beijing. Because of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s suppression of Falun Gong, he and his wife left home to avoid being arrested. Later, he was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment, and he is currently detained in the Ninth Ward of Beijing Qianjin Prison.

Mr. Zhang refused to submit to prison guards, insisting that a person should have his own beliefs. The Twelfth Ward organised prison guards to adopt humiliating methods for assault. Isolating him in a small dark room, they forced him to sit on top of a protrusion on a small plastic stool, not allowing him to move; they then assigned several inmates to take turns monitoring him. His buttocks became infected due to the prolonged sitting. Mr. Zhang was locked up in the small dark room and not allowed to see anyone, and the on-duty guard in the surveillance room turned a blind eye when inmates beat him up. Finally, they took Mr. Zhang's 80-year-old mother to see him to force him to give up his belief in Falun Gong. In order to place even more pressure on Mr. Zhang to force him to renounce his faith, the guard didn't allow the criminals in the same class as Mr. Zhang to take naps, and instead ordered the whole class of criminals to sit straight on both sides of a table inside the room, giving the criminals a reason to hate and verbally abuse practitioners.

Mr. Gao Jianming: In 2005, Mr. Gao was sentenced to three years of imprisonment by Haidian District Court and then locked in a small, dark room in Beijing Qianjin Prison. The guards did not allow him to move and forced him to sit upright on a plastic stool. He suffered a backache after sitting for a period of time, and four guards took turns in two shifts to watch him. He was not even allowed to raise his head while going to toilet. Moreover, if one is not "transformed," one is only permitted to buy the most basic necessities. On the first family visitation day, the Twelfth Ward political director Chen Jun warned Mr. Gao, "Do not make any irresponsible remarks, or we will not grant you family visitation next time."

But, Mr. Gao revealed what was happening during his family visitation. His wife contacted the judicial bureau immediately and told them there was sufficient evidence to prove that Mr. Gao was being tortured. The next day, Chen Jun found Mr. Gao and said, "What personal connections do your family have on the inside? If sitting on a stool gives you back pain, later on we will have you sit on the ground!"

Mr. Xu Huaquan: Mr. Xu is an undergraduate student majoring in English, who is very talented, smart, and straightforward with others. However, he has been repeatedly tortured by Chen Jun, team leader Zhang Zhong, and team leader Meng Chun. He has been locked in a water dungeon, a very small room filled with water up to the chest, several times.

Unknown practitioner: This practitioner is a former employee of the Shijingshan Shougang Group. In a "group thought" sharing, he wrote, "I still think that Falun Gong is righteous." Immediately, Chen Jun had him imprisoned in a small, dark room, where he was only allowed go to sleep after midnight each day in an attempt to force him to "transform."

Background:

In the first half of 2006, almost all of the Falun Gong practitioners in the Twelfth Ward expressed that they would continue practising. In a short while, the Twelfth Ward became a very tense environment. Political director Chen Jun negotiated with the practitioners numerous times, telling them to "patch up a quarrel" and "keep the peace" so that they would remain silent. But when the practitioners proposed that they be allowed to do the Falun Gong exercises, Chen reported them to the warden.

CCP authorities called for Procuratorate personnel and the prison law enforcement team. They used the excuse that the practitioners were jeopardising the supervision order to announce that they were making an isolated investigation. Two people at a time grabbed a practitioner, altogether detaining eight practitioners, including Mr. Wu Jun and Mr. Wang Wei. They put them in separate rooms to conduct interrogations. Meanwhile, an investigation for "evidence collection" proceeded in the Twelfth Ward. They talked to inmates one by one and made notes. Chen Jun came by both rooms with handcuffs and shackles, and said that they will be used on whoever stood up or didn't co-operate.

Beijing Qianjin Prison selects prisoners from different regions, choosing those that have no one in their family practising Falun Gong and no knowledge about Falun Gong. When they arrive at the prison, they watch videos that slander Falun Gong for a week. After being brainwashed, they have a hatred for Falun Gong and torture the practitioners. Now the prison also makes the prisoners do perform forced labour to make casings for a popular pastry that are sold in surrounding supermarkets. The work conditions are dirty, they aren't equipped with a sanitation facility, and all prisoners go to the toilet together in the middle of work time.

In 2008 the prison spent a lot of money to install a set of monitoring equipment and put two cameras in each room, so there aren't any unmonitored zones in each room.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/9/21/229942.html