(Clearwisdom.net) Tang Jianguo and his son Xiong Chao are both Falun Dafa practitioners in the Hanyang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province. Police arrested them at their home seven months ago. Recently, the police extorted 50,000 yuan from their family and released them. Xiong Chao remains in a coma. During their detention, police tortured Xiong Chao inhumanely in front of his father. They shocked him with electric batons, burned his face with cigarettes and stabbed him with needles. More details follow.

Tang Jianguo and his son, Wuhan University student Xiong Chao, were arrested from home on November 7, 2005 when they were about to go out. Several police, including plainclothes police agents, rushed into their home, seized them and took them to the Yaojialing Detention Center for interrogation under torture. Tang Jianguo and Xiong Chao were very firm in their belief and resisted the evildoers. The police detained them in separate cells. It was not until April 2006 that the father and son were able to see each other again.

Tang Jianguo clarified the truth to others inside the detention center, so authorities forbade him further contact with others and locked him up in solitary confinement. They called in his daughter to help with the so-called "ideological reform work." Tang Jianguo told his daughter to have a clear understanding of her path and be firm; he also asked her to continue to do what remained to be done and do it well. In March 2006 Tang Jianguo was transferred to the Erzhigou Detention Center and lost contact with his daughter.

Tang Jianguo met his son Xiong Chao at the Erzhigou Detention Center. Xiong Chao was by then only semi-conscious from torture. Police tortured Xiong Chao in front of Tang Jianguo every day. They grabbed Xiong Chao's hair and shook his head incessantly until Xiong Chao lost consciousness. Then they shocked him with electric batons, burned him with cigarettes and stabbed him with needles until he regained consciousness. They tortured Xiong Chao repeatedly like this. Their purpose was to force the father and son to write "guarantee statements" that they would not practice anymore and would not contact other practitioners. Tang Jianguo and Xiong Chao refused to give in. Tang Jianguo consoled Xiong Chao that victory is in sight if he can be persistent in his belief! That's how they endured the tortures for three months.

State Security of Wuchang District spies and staff in the Political and Security Brigade from Wuhan University and agents from the 610 Office in their neighborhood were involved in the persecution of Tang Jianguo and Xiong Chao. A stranger once called Tang Li by phone and told her brother Xiong Chao was dead.

Many practitioners were tortured beyond recognition in that detention center. Some lost consciousness during the beatings. Sometimes the police urinated on them. Some of them were hung up by the police and wrapped in a cotton blanket. The police then struck them savagely with clubs and iron chains.

On July 1, Tang Jianguo and Xiong Chao were taken to an interrogation room. Authorities demanded 50,000 yuan from their family for their release. On July 5, they were transferred to Wuchang District Detention Center and threatened that they would be transferred somewhere else if their family members failed to pay the extortion demanded. On July 6, Tang Jianguo's son-in-law and other relatives went to buy their release. The authorities extorted 53,000 yuan from them before releasing Tang Jianguo and Xiong Chao and ordered their family and relatives to monitor them closely and forbid them to go out within three months or to attend any Falun Gong activities; otherwise, they would not return 40,000 yuan in "bail." They didn't give any receipt for the remaining 13,000 yuan and claimed it was payment for their living costs during the detention.

Xiong Chao is still in a coma. Tang Li's whereabouts are unknown. Tang Jianguo's son-in-law sold all valuables including household furniture and appliances to rescue Tang Jianguo and Xiong Chao; however, it was far from enough. Luckily, with the help and financial support of all their relatives, Xiong Chao and his father were released and left that living hell. When they returned home, the Street Committee members and staff from the police station took turns harassing them at their residence. Their residence is still under surveillance.

July 13, 2006

Posting date: 8/5/2006
Original article date: 8/5/2006
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/7/15/133002.html

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