Falun Gong Practitioner Feng Zhongliang Died in June 2011 after Suffering Years of Persecution

Name: Feng Zhongliang
Gender: Male
Age: 48
Address: Panzhihua, Sichuan Province
Occupation: Design Manager
Date of Death: June 6th, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Summer 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wumaping Prison
City: Muchuan County
Province: Sichuan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brutal beatings, forced postures, extortion, imprisonment, wages withheld, home ransacked, long-term standing

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Feng Zhongliang, born in March 1963, was a design manager at the Panzhihua Ministry of Construction. After he began practising Falun Gong, he became healthy, his work was outstanding, and he received three awards for job excellence.

Mr. Feng was arrested in the summer of 2006 while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong to a visitor from another bureau and was subsequently sentenced to prison. He was severely persecuted in Wumaping Prison, where he developed tuberculosis. He was released on April 28th, 2009, but could no longer walk. He suffered from multiple organ failure and severe shortness of breath. The Panzhihua Ministry of Personnel refused to give him basic living expenses after his release, so he was forced to go to southern China to live with his father, who was in his 80s.

Feng Zhongliang died on June 6th, 2011, at the age of 48.

Tortured for Two Days, Severely Traumatised

In the summer of 2006, Mr. Shi from the City Forestry Bureau went to visit Mr. Feng. Mr. Feng gave him some materials to help him understand the facts about Falun Gong. Shi reported him to the authorities, and the Yanbian County Police Department handled the case.

A dozen officers took Mr. Feng to the police department and attempted to force him to reveal the source of his materials. His hands were cuffed behind his back and to the leg of a desk, forcing him into a position in which he could only half squat and half stand. Officers pulled him up by his collar, causing excruciating pain to his back and legs. He began to shake, and when he sat down, seven to eight officers took turns beating him. They tortured him throughout the night.

The next day, they forced Mr. Feng to stand at a 45-degree angle with his head against a wall. His legs shook from fatigue, yet he was forced to squat. When officers struck his hands and feet with a stick, he collapsed. He was tortured two days nonstop, and was severely traumatised as result.

A Broken Family

After two days of torture, Mr. Feng was transferred to Wanyaoshu Detention Centre. During that time, a lawyer extorted thousands of yuan from his family. Under the extreme pressure in detention, Mr. Feng signed a guarantee statement giving up Falun Gongcultivation practice, but he was still sentenced to three years, along with a four-year home detention. After his release, he was demoted at work and given no salary. In addition, he was forced to report to the Bingcaogang Police Station daily.

In the autumn of 2009, his wife could no longer handle the emotional and financial stress, so she divorced him. She took the house, savings, and their child. Mr. Feng subsequently rented a room in Guaziping.

In September 2009, the Bingcaogang and Guaziping Police Stations sent staff to harass Mr. Feng. They searched his home without a warrant; confiscated Falun Gong materials; then took Mr. Feng to the Wanyaoshu Detention Centre. He was later transferred to Wumaping Prison in Muchuan County.

Developed Tuberculosis in Prison

Mr. Feng was taken to prison in in the depths winter, and guards forced him to stand or sit outdoors for 15 to 17 hours a day, wearing only a thin layer of clothes. He developed a high fever, tremors, dizziness, and shortness of breath. The guards forced him to sit on a concrete floor while memorising prison rules and regulations. He was not allowed to sleep until after 11 p.m. He was also forced to sing songs eulogising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); whenever he refused, he was not given any food. Inmates Zhang Wenming, Lu Xiongchao, and Hu Dajian were ordered by guards to beat him constantly.

After two months of brutal persecution, Mr. Feng's physical condition deteriorated severely; he suffered from a high fever for a month and couldn't stop coughing. At the end of 2006, the prison doctor diagnosed him with tuberculosis and he was taken to another section of the prison for isolation.

Mr. Feng was forced to wear a mask, take medicine, and submit to injections of unknown drugs until he was in critical condition. Due to fellow practitioners' strong condemnation and protests, the prison authorities took him to the Jianwei County Prison Hospital for treatment.

In the hospital, Mr. Feng was tied to his bed and given forced intravenous injections of unknown substances. Prison officials ordered an inmate named Yang to take care of him, but he didn't feed Mr. Feng very often. After ten months, Mr. Feng was transferred back to the prison.

Upon Mr. Feng's return to prison, guards ordered inmates to drag him across the floor. He was extremely weak and could barely catch his breath, yet even in that condition, he was assigned to the top bunk bed. Inmates Huang Yong, Huang Ming, and Yang beat him at will, and threatened, “If you don't take your medication, we'll abuse you daily.” Huang Ming beat Mr. Feng with a club every day for two weeks.

Even when Mr. Feng did take the medications, inmates burned his toes with cigarettes, poured cold water on his head and wet his bedding, then opened the window to allow the cold wind to blow on him. They cursed Falun Gong while torturing him.

On April 28th, 2009, Mr. Feng was released after three years in prison. However, he could no longer walk and had severe shortness of breath. The Panzhihua Ministry of Personnel refused to give him basic living expenses following his release, so he was forced to go to southern China to live with his father, who was in his 80s. He was hospitalised in August 2009, where he was diagnosed with pulmonary oedema, tuberculosis, and bronchitis. The Panzhihua Ministry of Personnel staff took advantage of his weak condition and forced him to write a guarantee statement, then gave him a 225-yuan ($36 USD) monthly subsistence allowance.

At the beginning of 2011, Mr. Feng was taken to the Panzhihua No. 4 Hospital, but was left unattended. When his friends went to visit him, the nurse, chief nurse, resident committee members and 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) staff harassed them, demanding their identification cards. During that time, residential committee members and his uncle went to the hospital and ordered him to write another guarantee statement in order to receive his monthly living allowance. He refused, and his uncle and the committee members then cursed at him.

On June 6th, 2011, as a result of three years of brutal persecution in prison, Mr. Feng Zhongliang finally passed away.

Perpetrators:
Wumaping Prison in Muchuan County
Zhu Wei, warden
Tian Yi, assistant warden: +86-833-4379003
Xia Shaojiu, director, No. 1 Prison District
Luo Jiachun, assistant director, No. 1 Prison District
Chen Guoshun and Luo Guohua, political directors, No. 1 Prison District
Wang Yizhong, No. 4 Prison District
Li Junchao, director, No. 4 Prison District
Gou Guanghui, director, No. 6 Prison District

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/12/27/251079.html