(Clearwisdom.net) Practitioner Zhang Zhong is being illegally detained in the Hongweixing Prison in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, where he has suffered merciless beatings at the hands of Li Fangjie (deputy chief of the prison's third division), as well as other policemen. Zhang Zhong was beaten until his lower limbs were paralyzed and he fell into a coma. He has been in a coma for half a year and now relies on an oxygen tank to sustain his life. The following is an account of what happened to him:

In April 2002, Zhang Zhong and four other Dafa practitioners were arrested because they persisted in practicing cultivation and clarifying the truth. Around November, they were secretly and illegally sentenced to prison. Zhang Zhong was sentenced to 12 years in the Hongweixing Prison.

At 9 am on January 15, 2004, Zhang Zhong was doing the exercises in his jail cell. Deputy chief Li Fangjie quickly forced him to go to a room where he loudly verbally abused him. They also prevented him from doing the exercises. Zhang Zhong said, "Falun Dafa is a righteous Way. It's not wrong to do the exercises, and you shouldn't stop me."

At that point, Li Fangjie, Yu Qingjiang, and Liang Shuyi started beating Zhang Zhong's head, and Zhang Zhong lost consciousness and fell to the floor. They then used needles to pierce Zhang Zhong's head and hands, but he did not wake up. Afterwards, they started kicking Zhang Zhong in the stomach and lower back, and they ordered two criminal inmates to lift Zhang Zhong up. At that point, many other guards walked in and Li Fangjie and the others lied and defended their actions saying, "He was doing the exercises, so I reprimanded him a couple times, and then he just laid down on the ground."

After this incident, Zhang Zhong was moved to the sixth prison division, where he vomited blood and whatever he ate. In addition, he was unable to use his lower limbs. It has been half a year since the beating and he is still in this condition, but the police will not release him.

According to a report on Clearwisdom, stories of the atrocities at Hongweixing Prison and of the total disregard for human life there have been continuously exposed, and truth-clarifying phone calls to the prison also constantly came from everywhere. Every day, many truth clarifying banners would appear around the prison with phrases reading, "Immediately and Unconditionally Release Dafa Practitioner Zhang Zhong," and, "Global Coalition to Bring Evil Jiang Zemin to Justice," in addition to, "The World Needs Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." The persecutors desperately tried to conceal the true situation.

The prison did not allow family visits. Zhang Zhong's wife, He Zhihong, was arrested on March 8, 2004. The Hongweixing Prison police aggressively searched for anyone who tried to expose their persecution of practitioners, and on many occasions they held meetings to warn workers there that if they divulged these secrets, they would be fired and put in a disciplinary class, etc. At the same time, Hongweixing Prison continued to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. They illegally detained practitioners Guan Zhaoqi, Jiang Nianxiang, Zhou Guochen, Dai Zhidong, Jia Shenghui, etc., all of whom suffered to various degrees.

In February 2004, the chief of the prison's seventh brigade, Li Fengjiang, started using prison inmates to torture the practitioners and to force them to write repentance letters. During the day, the practitioners would be forced to stand without talking. At night, they would not be allowed to sleep. They would also not be allowed to contact anyone. The practitioners were randomly beaten by these criminals and policemen.

We call on international human rights organizations to look into these situations of persecution as soon as possible. Hopefully, kind people can rescue Dafa practitioner Zhang Zhong and others who are currently being tortured and detained in Hongweixing Prison.