Practitioner Li Wendong Force-Fed in Detention, Visits from His Wife Denied

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Wendong from Tangshan City, Hebei Province was arrested in February of this year and has since been detained at a detention centre. He held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was subjected to brutal forced-feeding. He was detained in a confinement room and tortured. His family has not been allowed to visit him.

A group of officers from the Kaiping District Police Department, the Kaiping Police Station and the Shuidong Police Station broke into Li Wendong's home on February 25th, 2012 and arrested him. The police detained him at the First Detention Centre in Tangshan City and charged him with “using a cult to undermine law enforcement,” and sent his case to the Kaiping District Procuratorate.

Li Wendong protested the detention and persecution. He shouted loudly, “Falun Gong is good” in the detention centre. The guards covered his mouth with tape, put handcuffs and shackles on him, and held him in a confinement room for torture. Li Wendong held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards tied him to a bed and forcibly inserted a tube into his mouth to force-feed him three times a day.

Li Wendong's attorney visited him at the First Detention Centre in Tangshan City on May 7th and learned of the persecution that he suffered. Li Wendong's wife was very worried about her husband's health and was anxious to visit him. The detention centre promised that she could visit her husband if she had a letter of proof (stating that she did not practise Falun Gong) from the police department which handled the case.

In order to get the letter of proof, Li Wendong's wife went to the Wali Police Station in Kaiping District, the Kaiping District Domestic Security Team (which handled Li Wendong's case), the Kaiping District Procuratorate, the Kaiping District Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politics and Law Committee, the Kaiping District 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), the Tangshan City Police Department Appeal Office and the Tangshan Steel Factory (Li Wendong's workplace) police department. But the police always pushed her out and refused to issue the letter to her. Specifically, police official Chen Suji (possibly a pseudo name) of the Kaiping District Domestic Security Team, who handled the case, said clearly to her, “You should leave. I won't handle your request.” Zhao Chunsheng, the captain of the Domestic Security Team, forcibly pushed Li Wendong's wife out of his office. By the beginning of June, Li Wendong's wife still could not get any police department to issue the letter she needed to have in order to see her husband.

Li Wendong, 45, is kind, willing to help others, and is very good at his work. He started practising Falun Gong in 1998. Because he refused to give up his belief in Falun Gong, he was sentenced to forced labour for three years, from 2000 to 2003. He was subjected to the “killer rope” torture, as well as electric shocks, forced sitting on a board for long time, forced labour, and other abuse and brutal tortures at the Hehuakeng Forced Labour Camp. Mr. Li was also dismissed from his job at the Tangshan Steel Factory without any reason and was treated as a temporary worker, with low wages and no benefits. He requested that the factory reinstate his former position many times, but the officials at the Tangshan Steel Factory have refused his requests.

Personnel who have participated in the persecution of Li Wendong:

Chen Yongwen, deputy chief of Kaiping District Police Department, Tangshan City. Chen has consistently participated in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners
Zhao Chunsheng, caption of the Domestic Security Team in Kaiping District Police Department: +86-13832988290 (Mobile)
Zhang Zhi, captain of Kaiping District Criminal Police Team: +86-13832988225 (Mobile)