Lieutenant Commander's Health Destroyed While Held in Prison for Ten Years

Name: Wang Youjiang
Gender: Male
Age: 41
Address: Hometown in Yongdeng County, Gansu Province before joining the army
Occupation: Lieutenant-Commander of the Communication Corps in Lanzhou Military Region

Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 10th, 2001
Most Recent Place of Detention: Dashaping Prison in Lanzhou City

City: Lanzhou
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denied visitation
Key Persecutors: Lai Xingping, Liu Baosen, Li Lin, Xiao Bin

Mr. Wang Youjiang is the former lieutenant-commander of the communications corps of the Lanzhou Military Region. He was arrested by the Domestic Security Division of the Lanzhou City Police Department on January 10th, 2001. He was later sentenced to ten years in prison. He was held at three facilities in Lanzhou City: the Xiguoyuan Detention Centre, the Xigusiergou Detention Centre, and the Dashaping Prison. His prison term ended on January 9th, 2011.

Simply for trying to be a good person, adhering to his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and writing a banner “Restore Falun Gong's Innocence,” Mr. Wang was sentenced to ten years in prison. His health has deteriorated after years of abuse in the prison and he can no longer take care of himself. His wife left him. His elderly parents have spent much time on the road trying to visit him.

Mr. Wang, 41, graduated from the Zhangjiakou Communications Institute. His hometown is in Yongdeng County, Gansu Province. He started practising Falun Gong in 1998. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Mr. Wang went to Beijing to speak out for Falun Gong. He was taken into custody several times. In late December 2000, he again went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. He was intercepted at Zhongwei Railroad Station in Ningxia Autonomous Region, where he was held for a day before being transferred to the Taoshuping Detention Centre for a seven-day detention.

On January 10th, 2001, he was arrested after the police received reports. The police sabotaged a production site for Falun Gong printing materials, confiscating equipment and supplies worth over 100,000 yuan¹. Mr. Wang had made the purchases using the compensation he received when he was decommissioned from the military. He was taken to the Xiguoyuan Detention Centre in Lanzhou City. The guards beat him, forced him to do manual labour, and deprived him of sleep. When he was transferred to the Xigusiergou Detention Centre in Lanzhou, he could not stand.

On July 3rd, 2001, he was sentenced to ten years in prison in a secret trial held in the Yuzhong area by the Chengguan District Court in Lanzhou City. He went on hunger strikes in prison and was severely tortured. He was taken to the Dashaping Prison Hospital when he became extremely weak. However, as soon as his life was not in imminent danger, he was taken back to the prison.

In 2006, Mr. Wang's family went through all the trouble to get the prison to agree to release him on medical parole. However, the Yongdeng County Police refused to take him back. The officers told his family that he had no chance of returning home, even if he was on medical parole. They made a contemptuous claim, “We will send him right back into prison if he is released.”

Mr. Wang's hair has turned partially grey due to stress of the persecution.

Around August 2008, the prison authorities used security for the Beijing Olympics as an excuse and locked Mr. Wang in solitary confinement twice, each lasting 15 days. His family was deprived of the right to visit him for half a year.

At the end of 2008, Mr. Wang's elderly parents went to Lanzhou City from their hometown in Yongdeng County. They were not allowed to see their son. On January 8th, 2009, Mr. Wang's father followed the instructions of Xiao Bin, the prison's political instructor, who said that they could visit Mr. Wang on designated dates in January, but he was again denied visitation. Xiao told him, “It is both the advice from higher leaders as well as our own decisions. Inmates serving criminal terms, even those who have killed people, can be visited. Falun Gong practitioners cannot. Wang Youjiang in particular cannot have any family visitation, for he has refused to be 'transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong].

Individuals responsible for the persecution:

Lai Xingping, presiding judge, Chengguan District Court in Lanzhou City
Liu Baosen, judge, Chengguan District Court
Li Lin, secretary, Chengguan District Court
Xiao Bin, political instructor of the No. 5 Ward, Dashaping Prison, Lanzhou City

Related report:

http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/4/19/116191.html

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/2010/12/31/234340.html