Mr. Zhu Wenhua Beaten to Death During Detention in Gangbei Prison in Tianjin City

Name: Zhu Wenhua
Gender: Male
Age: 53
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Employee of the Tianjin City International Heating and Ventilation Equipment Limited Company
Date of Death: July 19th, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 2003
Most Recent Place of Detention: Tianjin Prison
City: Tianjin
Persecution Suffered: Beatings, imprisonment, torture, denied visitation

At midnight on July 21st, 2010, the family of Mr. Zhu Wenhua received a call from Gangbei Prison of Tianjin City, Hebei Province saying that Mr. Zhu had died from a heart attack during his detention in the prison. Mr. Zhu was a Falun Gong practitioner from the Nankai District, Tianjin City. He died when he was brutally beaten by prison guards and inmates.

According to the latest information, on the afternoon of July 21st, 2010 Mr. Zhu had been subjected to so called "re-education." The order for the "re-education" was signalled by Liu Chao, a chief prison guard, and was implemented by inmates Wang Jianfeng, from Hebei District, Tianjin City, Zhang Di, from Dongli District, Tianjin City and Feng Jie, from Nankai District, Tanjin City. They confined Mr. Zhu in a storage house and claimed that they would "re-educate" him. Everyone, including the inmates and prison guards, knew that Mr. Zhu was facing brutal torture in the name of "re-education," because such things had happened many times before.

The perpetrators kept torturing Mr. Zhu for more than 6 hours from the afternoon till night. He died from the brutal beating, with his eyes wide open. The prison guards and inmates on the spot were frightened. They covered his body with a bed sheet and sent him to a hospital in haste.

At 2 a.m. on July 22nd, 2010 the prison appointed a new chief prison guard and removed the monitor in the storage house, where Mr. Zhu was tortured to death.

On July 22nd the Security Section of the prison interrogated the four perpetrators and then moved them to the 8th prison section for isolation. Seven days later they were sent back to their original prison section. The prison then redeployed the prison guards on duty and renovated the storage house entirely. They painted the wall to cover the traces of blood and removed the monitor and issued an order to forbid anyone from mentioning Mr. Zhu's death.

About three days later some plainclothes officials from the superior Chinese Communist Party's Discipline Committee inspected the prison and met with the chief of the prison's Security Section Yu and the four perpetrators and other inmates. Together they fabricated a completely false story about Mr. Zhu's death to cover their crime. No one was held accountable for this criminal act.

Mr. Zhu's family members went to the hospital to see him after they received the call from the prison, only to find that his body was closely monitored by police and no one was allowed to approach or see him.

Mr. Zhu, born on February 27th, 1956, was 54 years old. He was educated at a professional school and was an employee of the the International Radiator Limited Corporation of Tianjin City. In May 2003 he was arrested by police because of practising Falun Gong and was detained in the Dayingmen Police Station of the Hexi District, Tianjin City. During his detention none of his family members were allowed to see him. After one year of detention with an extended term he was brought to a secret trial in the court of the Nankai District, Tianjin City in March 2004. None of his family members were informed before the trial. When they were informed, the trial was already over. The trial promptly ended with absurd irregularities without coming to any judgement. He was then detained in the Political Security Section of Hexi District. On July 20th, 2004 the court issued a verdict sentencing him to 8 years of imprisonment in Gangbei Prison in Tianjin City.

Because Mr. Zhu refused to give up his practice of Falun Gong he was subjected to cruel torture. As a result he sustained a broken spine and fracture in one of his legs. He became irreversibly handicapped and could walk on only one leg.

The Gangbei Prison of Tianjin City, Hebei Province: 86-22-63251056
The 5th section: 86-22─62071151
The 1st subsection of the 5th section: 86-22--62071158
Inquiry: 86-22-62071052
Guo Wei, chief: 86-22-66271155
Duan Jicun, deputy chief: 86-22-6627108
Liu Jizhi, political director: 86-13642171247 (Mobile)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/10/12/230892.html