Mr. Li Chengshun from Tangshan City Sent to Hebei Pronvince No. 1 Forced Labour Camp Again

Name: Li Chengshun
Gender: Male
Age: 49
Address: Fengrun District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Employee of the Tangshan Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 25th, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hebei Province First Forced Labour Camp
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, torture, interrogation, extortion, dismissal from workplace, home ransacked, detention

Zhang Weiping and five other officers from the Taiping Road Police Station in the Fengrun District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, broke into Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Chengshun’s home at 7:30 a.m. on February 25th, 2012. They arrested him and confiscated his Falun Gong books and two mobile phones. Mr. Li was then sent to the Hebei Province First Forced Labour Camp (also known as Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan) on March 23rd and was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. This is the third time he has been subjected to long-term detention.

Mr. Li was born in Tangshan City in April 1963. He began practising Falun Gong in October 1994 and greatly benefited in mind and body. Because he has remained steadfast in his belief in Falun Gong, he has been persecuted multiple times.

On March 5th, 2002, four officers from the Kaiping District Police Department in Tangshan City arrested Mr. Li at his workplace. They took him to the basement of the police station, where he was interrogated and tortured. On May 31st, the authorities sent him to the Tangshan City First Detention Centre without following any legal procedures. They detained him for more than eight months, until his family sucessfully urged authorities to release him. The authorities also extorted 10,000 yuan¹ from his family as a so-called “management fee.”

Mr. Li was living in his friend’s home in Majiagou in the Kaiping District when, on February 26th, 2009, officials from the Kaiping District Police Department and the Majiagou Road Police Station arrested him again and severely tortured him. On March 25th that same year, he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment by the Tangshan City Forced Labour Camp Administration Committee and was tortured in the Kaiping Forced Labour Camp. His employer, the Tangshan Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd., subsequently fired him.

Mr. Li’s mother is in her 70s. She cared for his two children who were still in primary school while he was detained. After Mr. Li was released, he had to do hard labour to support his family.

Persons responsible for persecuting Mr. Li:
Mo Yamin, deputy head of Fengrun District Police Department: +86-315-2534668, +86-18832989598
Zeng Xianghai, deputy head of Fengrun District Domestic Security Division: +86-315-2534672, +86-13832980405
Zheng Ruixue, chief of Fengrun District 610 Office: +86-315-3081055, +86-13623333068
Zhang Weiping, from the police office of Taiping Road Police Station: +86-15533852109

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.