Name: Zhang Peng
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Address: Hengyang City, Hunan Province
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 2001
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wuling Prison
City: Changde
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, beatings, forced labour, solitary confinement, hung up, torture, fired from workplace, damaging force-feeding, sleep deprivation, back cuff, hung up with hands cuffed behind the back
Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Peng was a teacher from Nanhua University (formerly known as Zhongnan Technology Institute) in Hengyang City, Hunan Province. He was arrested in February 2001 in Changsha City and was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was incarcerated in both Chishan Prison and Wuling Prison. His term has now been extended for two more years. He is now being held and brutally mistreated in the strictly regulated division of Wuling Prison.
Framed and Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison
Mr. Zhang was a lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Department at Nanhua University. He earned the national attorney certification through the national self-study exam. He even worked as an attorney in Hengyang City and Guangzhou City. In early 1999, he started to practise Falun Gong. He followed Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance during his lectures and at work. He was praised by students and teachers alike for his abilities and high moral standard.
In October 1999, just months after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started its official persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested and detained at the Baishazhou Detention Centre (also known as the drug addiction treatment centre) in Hengyang City. He was arrested and detained again two weeks later. He was detained three times and forced to stay with the drug addicts. Encouraged by the guards, the drug addicts brutally tortured him. They ripped off his clothes and poured cold water on him in the snow. In January 2000, his relatives bailed him out. The university where he worked fired him and he no longer had any source of income. He was also frequently harassed by the police. He had to become homeless and destitute.
In February 2001, Mr. Zhang Peng was arrested by the police in Changsha City. He was brutally tortured, threatened, and falsely charged by the police from the Political and Security Section in Hengyang Police Department led by Zhou Zhaowen and Zhong Zhihua. He was even detained at the Hengyang City Police Department, Hengyang City First Detention Centre, the provincial police department detention centre in Changsha City, and Hengyang Second Detention Centre.
On November 2nd, 2001, the Yanfeng District Court in Hengyang City tried Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Zhang Peng, Ms. Ding Shikun, and Mr. Li Xuexian. Ms. Ding is from Xiangtan City. She had a patent approved in 1993. She was even honoured with a gold award and was listed in the book “Outstanding Chinese People.” Mr. Li, 35, is from Chenzhou City. He worked in the budgeting management team at Changsha Zhongjian Limited Inc., co-funded by Chinese and Japanese companies.
In the trial, the three practitioners told the court officers, “We are innocent. All the so-called 'evidence' has been fabricated by the police. They obtained it with torture, threats and lies. They are all excuses to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. There is nothing wrong with cultivating Falun Gong. It is not a crime to clarify the truth to the public. Restore our reputations!”
On November 9th, 2001, the CCP court sentenced Mr. Zhang to ten years in prison, Ms. Ding to nine years, and Mr. Li to seven years. All three refused to sign the verdicts to protest the persecution. They appealed to the middle level court in Hengyang City. They also called for help and support from the public.
On December 24th, 2001, the Hengyang City Middle Court started a retrial. Although the court announced that it would be a public trial, that morning, the practitioners were driven up to a side door of the courthouse and taken to a room in the basement. During the trial, Mr. Zhang Peng exposed the ridiculousness of the district court’s verdict and pointed out that the “verified facts” were actually false. In order to clarify the issue, the three practitioners asked the court to summon the witness mentioned in the verdict, the police who handled the case, and the prisoners who witnessed the brutal torture the three practitioners endured. They also asked that their injuries be verified. They announced, “The truth can be verified; we are not afraid of counter-arguments. The facts should be transparent and open. Whether it is good or evil, anyone with a conscience will be able to tell. We hope everything be told to the public without distortion.”
Despite the indisputable truth and facts, the Hengyang City Middle Court upheld the original verdicts on January 22nd, 2002. On January 25th, 2002, Ms. Ding Shikun was transferred to the Changsha City Woman's Prison. Mr. Zhang Peng and Mr. Li Xuexian were transferred to Chishan Prison in Yuanjiang City, Yiyang Region, Hunan Province (also known as the First Prison in Hunan Province)
In Chishan Prison, Mr. Zhang Peng refused to be “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. He firmly cultivated in Falun Gong, protested the persecution, and clarified the truth. He used hunger strikes to protest the persecution many times. In 2003, he was force-fed food and brutally beaten. His life was threatened as a result.
Mr. Jia Zhefa Left the Prison Successfully; Guards Sought Revenge by Persecuting Mr. Zhang Peng
In February 2004, Deputy Warden Zi Wei from Chishan Prison called the prison administrative section head, Zhang Ainian, and told him that since he did not “transform” Zeng Haiqi the year before, they needed to keep Zeng Haiqi in the strictly regulated division and torture him brutally. He also gave orders that Mr. Zhang Peng and Mr. Jia Zhefa, who had been in solitary confinement, be sent to the strictly regulated division.
The strictly regulated division in Chishan Prison was inside the confinement team. The guards used electric batons, torture, and other brutal tactics to torture the prisoners. They instituted the strictly regulated division once every year, usually for about three months. Some 15 to 40 prisoners were sent to the strictly regulated division each time. All the prisoners described the strictly regulated division as a horrible “meat grinder.”
On February 22nd, 2004, when Mr. Jia Zhefa talked with others, the prison police thought he had shared Falun Gong materials and wanted to search him. Mr. Jia protested the unreasonable request and refused to have his bed searched for Falun Gong-related materials. The guard punched him in the eyes, and his eyes swelled. Later the guards slandered him, accusing him of “attacking the guards.” On February 23rd, 2004, Mr. Jia was confined in the strictly regulated division.
Deputy Warden Zi Wei ordered the team leader of the strictly regulated division, Zeng Xianbao, to tell the prisoners and police to used ten-thousand-volt electric batons and all kinds of brutal ways to torture Mr. Jia. They did not allow him to sleep at night, used the electric baton to beat him regularly, and used other brutal torture son him. Usually the guards only used the electric batons to beat the most unmanageable prisoners for three to ten minutes. But the guards beat Mr. Jia with electric batons day and night.
On October 18th, 2004, at about 5 p.m., Mr. Jia Zhefa escaped through two prison gates. All of Chishan Prison was boiling mad. The CCP head, Luo Gan, went to Chishan Prison in person to take charge. The Ministry of Public Security sent officers in and the deputy director of the Hunan Province Prison Administration Bureau, Li Yunfeng, went to the prison to lead the persecution. Deputy Zi Wei and the prison guards went out and chased Mr. Jia. They also allocated a one-million-yuan1 reward and prepared to monitor Jia Zefa's acquaintances and the places he usually went for the long term. In the end, the CCP got nothing.
After Mr. Jia escaped, the warden brutally tortured the remaining practitioners for revenge. They searched the practitioners, held meetings to deride them, put them in confinement, tortured them brutally, and forced them to stand facing the wall every day for 18 hours. They also increased the penalties on the others prisoners in order to stir up their hatred for the practitioners.
At the end of 2004, the Hunan Province 610 Office decided that Mr. Zhang Peng had intended to escape from the prison with Mr. Jia Zhefa. They treated Zhang Peng as an “example” and transferred him to the detention centre of the Yuanjiang City Police Department. They brutally tortured him for a long time to extract a “confession.” Later they sent him to the Changsha City Prison and brutally tortured him there. He was handcuffed behind his back and hung up for five days. He could just barely touch the ground with the tips of his toes. The guards did not let him sleep and hit his eyelids with a thin wire.
Because Chishan Prison brutally persecuted practitioners, 241 Falun Gong practitioners' family members sent a signed appeal letter to the National People's Congress, the Supreme Procuratorate, and other authorities. Also, because Mr. Jia Zhefa escaped from Chishan Prison, the team in charge of persecuting practitioners in that prison was dismissed. The CCP transferred the practitioners incarcerated in Chishan Prison to other prisons in Hunan Province.
Handcuffed and Tortured in Wuling Prison
Wuling Prison in Changde City, Hunan Province, forced the prisoners to do extended forced labour for a long time. Some were forced to work about 16 hours every day. In order to get the maximum benefit, the prison did not care whether the prisoners lived or died. They frequently beat those who did not finish the assigned work (most of the work needs to be finished over ten hours every day), or even handcuffed them behind their backs and hung them up by their handcuffs, put heavy shackles on them, hung insulting signs around their necks for public display, tied them up with ropes, or sent them to the strictly regulated division.
Mr. Zhang was transferred from Chishan Prison to Wuling Prison. He was handcuffed and hung up for six days. Zi Wei and guards from Chishan Prison plus Zeng Ming and police from Yuanjiang City Domestic Security Division participated this torture. They tortured Mr. Zhang Peng in Wuling Prison in turn for over two months and did not allow him to sleep.
In October 2005, Mr. Zhang was put in the First Team, Fifth Division in Wuling Prison. He was forced to do slave labour. There were no days off and no pay. After a few years of this, he was so weak that he could no longer endure such intense labour. He insisted on studying the Falun Gong teachings and practising the exercises. He was constantly beaten and monitored. The guards arranged for prisoners to monitor him in turn, even when he went to the toilet or took a shower. Mr. Zhang never cooperated.
In November 2005, because he refused to wear a prison uniform, the guards handcuffed him with his arms behind his back. They pulled one of his arms over one shoulder and pushed his other arm up behind his back and handcuffed his wrists together to form a straight line. After suffering 20 or so minutes of this torture, the victim usually becomes disabled. Mr. Zhang was forced to bend over as if he was carrying a heavy object on his back and was left like this for four to five hours. When the handcuffs were removed, he could not straighten his back. That afternoon, he was confined in a small cell. Several days later, he was transferred to the “strictly regulated division.”
One day before New Years Day 2006, Mr. Zhang was let out of the strictly regulated division. He refused to wear the prisoner's uniform and prisoner's number plate, refused to put the yellow sign on his clothes, refused to report his number and shout “yes,” and refused to do slave labour. He also badgered them to stop persecuting practitioner Zhou Zixian. He asked the prison guards in the First Team, Fifth Division to turn in their appeal letter to the warden. The guards handcuffed him and hung him up for a whole morning.
On February 3rd, 2006, Mr. Zhang went to the guard room near the prison gate to appeal directly to the warden. At dinnertime, guards from the fifth prison division hung him up on the security net in the prison division. In the night, a few guards from the special squat came and took Mr. Zhang to the office. They ripped his clothes off and used a bamboo stick to beat him. Then they sent him to the strictly regulated division. It was snowing that night. The guards ripped off his jacket, sweater, and trousers and exposed him to the cold in only a few clothes. For a few days, the guards in the fifth division did not give him any clothes. The other practitioners in the fifth team went on a hunger strike to protest this, but the guards did not care. They froze him and tortured him in more and more brutal ways. The strictly regulated division is several times worse than the fifth division, and it is effective in keeping any information from leaking out. Mr. Zhang Peng was detained in the strictly regulated division for three to four months.
The guards who participated in this heinous acts included deputy warden Wu Guogang, caption of the fifth prison division Zhang Wenjun, deputy caption of the fifth prison division Li Chunhua, instructor Dai Minggui, political instructor Gao Shibiao, and instruction and education section head Xiong Chaohui.
In April 6th, 2006, the deputy head of the detective section in Wuling Prison, Zi Yan, conspired with the CCP legal system to accuse Mr. Zhang Peng of trying escape. They extended his term for two more years. But, actually, when he went to the guard room to appeal to the warden, he did not even cross the prison gate. Mr. Zhang refused to eat in protest and hired an attorney to appeal for him. But the second trial still upheld the original sentence.
On September 21st, 2009, in the afternoon, inside the first floor of the Wuling Prison workshop, guard Tang Chunhui from the fifth prison division and Li Hui from the first division tortured Mr. Zhang. They slapped him in the face and hit him in the head. On September 27th, 2009, at around noon, guard Leng Shujia from the fifth prison division kicked him.
Mr. Zhang Peng is still being held in the strictly regulated division and being tortured. He is kept in a ten-square-meter room every day and is constantly monitored and tortured by a few prisoners.
Due to the anger, worry, and fear, as well as missing her son, Zhang Peng's elderly mother got severely ill. She is still being hospitalised in the Guangzhou Hospital. Every day she looks forward to seeing her son come home soon.
Wuling Prison in Changde City, Hunan Province:
E-mail: [email protected]
Wuling Prison personnel:
Zhang Chengfa, CCP party secretary and warden: 86-736-7898188
Liu Jinxiu, CCP party deputy secretary and political committee: 86-736-7898277
Duan Zongxiang, political instructor at the Fifth Division (where Zhang Peng has been imprisoned): 86-13907421258
Related article:
“Mr. Zhang Peng Given Extended Term after Suffering Ten Years of Torture and Abuse at Wuling Prison in Hunan Province”
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/5/1/124796.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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/4/13/238981.html
* * *
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source.
more ...