Mr. Liu Yongwang, an Engineer from Beijing, Sues Jidong Prison Guards for Torture

Name: Liu Yongwang
Gender: Male
Age: 39
Address: 6-1, Third Lane, Dongan St., Fengtai Town, Fengtai District, Beijing City
Occupation: Department Manager and Chief Engineer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August, 2005
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jidong Prison in Tangshan City
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Electric shocking, sleep deprivation, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, sexual assault, physical restraint, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use, damaging force-feeding
Key Persecutors: Guard Zheng Yajun
Defence Attorney: Cheng Hai, a lawyer from Beijing, and Li Lun, a lawyer from Hebei

Recently, it was made known from Jidong Prison that Mr. Liu Yongwang is suing the lawless guards in Jidong Prison, which is having the good effect of exposing the illegal actions prison guard Zheng Yajun committed against him and other detainees. The prosecution department of Jidong Prison recently informed Mr. Liu Yongwang that the prison decided to punish guard Zheng Yajun. Mr. Liu's attorney called the prosecution department of Jidong Prison and was given confirmation that this was so.

Zheng Yajun was demoted from his former position of guard because his torture methods were in violation of the law and as such he should be punished according to law.

Mr. Liu is about 40 years old. He was a department manager and general engineer of a foreign company in Beijing who was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2006 for practising Falun Gong.

Early in August 2010, Mr. Liu's family asked Beijing attorney Cheng Hai and Hebei attorney Li Lun to go to Jidong Prison to request a visit with Mr. Liu. According to the law the prison had no legal way to refuse and allowed the attorneys to visit Mr. Liu. When Mr. Liu met with the attorneys, he secretly gave them the indictment letter he wrote which provided the details and solid evidence for the case. When the prison officials learned of this indictment the guards took revenge on Mr. Liu Yongwang and his family and did not allow Mr. Wang's family to visit him for about one year.

The attorneys and Mr. Liu's family firmly persisted in complaining to the relevant departments and exposing the fact that Jidong Prison brutally abuses the detainees. Mr. Liu was not afraid of the intensifying persecution but kept reporting the issues about Zheng Yajun to the relevant departments. Finally the prison was forced to make a decision and punish guard Zheng Yajun. These actions send a strong message to all prison officials who will clearly have to rethink their futures and the consequences of their actions according to the law.

Torture Suffered

In the indictment, Mr. LiuYongwang described how Zheng Yajun confined him in a room on the top floor marked with a sign “No entry without permission from guards” and ordered 14 people to torture him by all kinds of means every day. In order to please the prison guards, these prisoners would do anything. The insulting and torturing of Falun Gong practitioners was entertainment for the collaborators¹.

They would cover Mr. Liu's head with a cardboard box, encircle him, and shove and punch him. Mr. Liu was knocked unconscious three times over a period of a few months. On New Year's Day 2007, Mr. Liu was knocked unconscious again. Whenever he came to, the beatings and insults would continue.
Mr. Liu suffered from severe muscle cramping in his legs, oedema, and he had bruises all over his ankles from the beatings. Taking sadistic pleasure in Mr. Liu's pain, the inmates would press on his swollen body saying that they were giving him a massage; because of the oedema, his skin would break open.
Inmate Zhang Donghong, who specialised in abusing Falun Gong practitioners, tried to give Mr. Liu another horrible "massage." When Mr. Liu refused to let him, the inmate angrily pushed Mr. Liu to the ground and stomped on his thighs and the lower part of his legs.

Under the encouragement and protection of Zheng Yajun, these inmates' activities were so obscene that it is hard for normal people to even talk about it. One day six inmates grabbed him and held him down, while they force-masturbated him three times.

To safeguard his basic human rights and dignity, Mr. Liu wrote a statement on January 17th, 2009. This indictment was handed to the jail's disciplinary department; however, there was no reply and no action was taken. What he received instead was relentless and frenzied retaliation from Zheng Yajun.

Not long after, inmate Jiang Hongbin beat Mr. Liu until he lost consciousness. The guards simply turned a blind eye to everything. In the freezing winter, they opened all the windows in the hall, letting the biting cold in. They positioned a stool right in the middle of a draft that was coming through a door. Zhang Donghong and Wang Quantao forced Mr. Liu to stand in the cold draft, allowing him only a thin layer of clothing. They also forced him to expose his private parts. He would be forced to stand in the draft for half an hour before he was allowed to rest awhile in bed. This process would be repeated over and over in the course of the entire night.

It was at this point that Mr. Liu strongly requested the legal department to look into the crimes of Zheng Yajun and 14 others criminal collaborators.

Related article:
Liu Yongwang Persecuted and on Verge of Death in Jidong Prison in Hebei Province
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2007/1/24/82002.html

My Son Is Being Cruelly Tortured and His Life is in Danger --Who is Responsible?
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2007/6/18/86869.html

Mr. Liu Yongwang Very Weak from One and a Half Year Hunger Strike at Yidong Prison, Hebei Province
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2007/12/17/92219.html

Mr. Liu Yongwang Serving Eight-Year Sentence--Family Denied Proper Visitation (Photo)
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2009/1/9/103754.html

Inhuman Insult and Torture
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/10/25/121018.html

A Childhood Full Of Tears - the Story of Xinxin and Her Family
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/12/13/121928.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/2011/9/7/246371.html