By Falun Dafa practitioner Zhou Xiuzhen

(Clearwisdom.net) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Langfang City, Hebei Province, and I am 56 years old. On December 17, 2000, I went to Tiananmen Square to validate Falun Dafa. That same day I was illegally sent to the Xicheng District Detention Center in Beijing.

At about 6:00 p.m., during dinnertime in the detention center, I was interrogated. A policeman asked me for my name and where I was from. I refused to tell him, so he beat me up. Then he used an iron chain to confine me to a chair and forced my arms back until I was in great pain. After a while, he took off his police uniform and beat me even more violently. When he was tired, he would chat on the phone to take a break and then continue to beat me. Sometimes he forced me to stand with my legs apart and knees bent for a long time, and sometimes he forced me to bend over. He tortured me like this for more than three hours. I was dizzy from the beating, and my body was full of bruises.

The next day, December 18, I was interrogated again at the same time and by the same policeman, this time wearing plainclothes. As soon as I entered the interrogation room, he used the iron chain to bind me to the chair. He said, "If you don't talk today, I will let you die here." I said, "I will not talk even if I die here." Then he used an electric baton to shock me from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet and all the sensitive areas in between. He first shocked my temples, then my face, and poked the electric baton into my mouth. Then he shocked my neck, the backs of my ears, and back of my head. Following that, he shocked my chest, breasts, back, crotch, lower abdomen, every fingertip, every toe tip, the part of the hand between the thumb and index finger, my palms, and the arches of my feet. The "pop" and crackling sounds of the electric baton competed with my screams and the screams of other practitioners in other interrogation rooms, resounding down the entire hallway. The strong electric current caused my body to jump involuntarily, so my tormentor used his feet to hold me down.

After torturing me for a while, he was tired, so he sat down and took out many pictures of Teacher. He burned them one by one in front of me and made me watch. Later he tried to force me to burn Teacher's pictures, but I refused, so he began to shock me again. My body slipped involuntarily to the floor, so he used his boot to step on me, kick, and stomp on me until I gradually got up from the floor and sat on the chair. Then he continued to shock me. When he was tired, he sat down again to rest. He took out a copy of Zhuan Falun (1) and tore it in front of me and put Teacher's picture on the floor and stomped on it. He put the picture under my feet and ordered me to stamp on it. I refused, so he moved my feet to step on it, and later he shocked me again using the electric baton. Such torture was repeated several times. Later he said that the electric baton did not work on me, so he used a thick club more than one meter long to strike me brutally on my back. He only struck me twice and the club broke. He used the broken end of the club to stab the liver and heart areas of my body. I was in extreme pain and screamed loudly, so he hastily brought some very dirty rags to stuff into my mouth.

After he was tired, he sat down again and took out a lighter to burn my fingertip and Teacher's picture, and then he tore Zhuan Falun some more. He tried to force me to tear the book, but I refused, so he then used the book to hit my head. He also took off my shoes and used the plastic soles to hit my feet and hands. When my hands and feet were swollen and bloody, he used his boots to stomp on them. He tortured me like this for more than four hours and did not obtain anything from me. He then used iodine to wipe up my blood and left.

Another person came in. When he saw I was beaten very badly, he asked me who had beaten me. (I later I heard that this person was from the supervisory bureau and had come to inspect their work.) After a while, the policemen in the detention center all stopped their interrogations, and the leader and some other people came to see me. They were panicky and said they must soon report to their superior to see how they could cover this thing up.

By this time, I was on the verge of death from all the torture. My whole body, inside and out, felt extremely painful. I suspected that my breastbone was broken, because it moved as I breathed. I could not move at all. They sent me back to the prison cell, but I could not even enter the door, because there is a slight slope at the doorway and I could not lift my feet. When my fellow practitioners saw how badly I was beaten, they insisted on seeing the director. The guard called the director to the prison cell. The director saw my condition and hurriedly brought me to see the medical doctor. The doctor saw that I had injuries all over my body. When he left the room to get something, there was no one with me, and I suddenly couldn't hear anything, lost consciousness, and fell to the ground.

I don't know how long I was unconsciousness. When I came to, I heard someone say, "Check to see if she is still breathing. Is she dead yet?" They sent me to Beijing Emergency Center. I was still wearing handcuffs and shackles. They saw me regain consciousness, so they said I was pretending. In the emergency center, they carried me to a machine to take x-rays. I was in pain and could not move. The police moved me back and forth for a long time. They did not tell me the result of the examination, but the doctor asked me about the feeling of pain in my chest. From his words, I was certain that my breastbone and ribs were broken from the beating.

When they brought me back, it was already about 12:00 midnight. The director general of Xicheng District Public Security Bureau and another person in charge were waiting for me at the detention center and wanted to talk to me. They said they would immediately dismiss the thug that beat me and punish him. They said that it was illegal to conduct an interrogation without wearing a police uniform and that it was also illegal to beat people. They asked me my name and address. I still refused to tell them. I also said I would sue the policeman who beat me. They reassured me that they would definitely punish him.

Two or three days later, in the afternoon, I was brought to be force-fed. When I passed the interrogation room, I saw that the thug who had beaten me was still doing interrogations. When he saw me he said arrogantly, "So you are still not dead!"

I was beaten this severely simply because I persevered in my belief and want to be a good person! I almost became disabled! My whole body was in pain, especially my breastbone, ribs and back. I did not even dare to take a deep breath. I could not move without other people's help. When I needed to use the restroom, fellow practitioners had to carry me, help me to squat down, and help me to get up. I also needed others to carry me to bed. I kept coughing, and when I coughed, all of my internal organs hurt. I continued to spit up a white froth, and my urine was bloody. I hurt all over all the time. At times I felt I would rather die than live! Without Teacher's benevolent care, I probably would not be alive today.

When the prisoner in charge of monitoring me discovered I had bloody urine, he reported to the prison guard. About the seventh day, when I could limpingly stand up, they took me to an unknown place, threw me out on the side of the road and left.

In extreme pain, I walked home with great difficulty. But because the public security bureau and the work unit were searching for me everywhere, my husband did not dare to let me stay at home. Four days later, injuries all over my body, I had to leave home and become destitute to avoid further persecution. Even after one month, I still could not turn over to sleep at night.

The policeman from Beijing's Xicheng District Public Security Bureau who beat me is guilty of criminal behavior. He violated the following articles of National Criminal Law: Article 234 - causing intentional injury; Article 247 - extorting confessions by torture; Article 248 - torturing detainees; and Article 397 - abuse of power. Also, this policeman seriously violated Article 22 of the Police Law of the People's Republic of China, which states, "The people's policemen are not allowed to: (4) Extort confessions by torture or mistreat or physically punish the prisoners; (7) Beat others or instigate others to beat people." This year, the 7th article of the Supreme People's Procuratorate "Nine Strict Rules" reaffirmed: "Anyone who extorts confessions by torture while handling the case should be dismissed first and then punished." Therefore, according to the national law and statute, I request that Beijing's Xicheng District People's Procuratorate place a case on file for the investigation and prosecution of this policeman.

(1) The book, Zhuan Falun, comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa.

November 1, 2004

Posting date: 11/15/2004
Original article date: 11/14/2004
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Translated on 11/8/2004
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/11/2/88153.html

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version