(Clearwisdom.net) Chen Jun, the political head of the 12^th Ward of Qianjin Prison in Beijing, is originally from Hubei Province. He was the former team head of the 9^th Ward. Chen is very cruel. When he was working in the 2^nd and 9^th Wards, he collaborated closely with Cao Lihua and persecuted Falun Gong practitioners for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When he was in the 9^th Ward, because he worked hard to persecute Falun Gong, he received the "Collective Class Two Merit Reward" from the CCP. In early April 2004, since the number of detained Falun Gong practitioners kept rising, Chen was transferred to the 12^th Ward, which only detained practitioners. In the 12^th Ward, he is the political head, and has been committing numerous crimes against practitioners.

The following is an account of some of the severe cases of persecution committed by Chen.

1. Mr. Wu Yinchang is a pharmacist in the Xiyuan Hospital at the Chinese Medicine Research Academy. He was born in 1966 and started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. Because he mailed out some Falun Gong truth-clarification materials, he was imprisoned for seven years. On January 8, 2004, Mr. Wu was detained in the 12^th Ward. He refused to renounce his belief in Falun Dafa, and was hence was locked up in a "small cell" (1) several times. Chen Jun ordered some criminal inmates to take turns watching Mr. Wu. He was only allowed to sleep for one or two hours a day. He was frequently beaten and verbally abused, and was not allowed to wash his face and brush his teeth. He was also restricted in the time he could use the toilet. It was very common that Mr. Wu would be forced to sit on a board. He was often locked up in a small dark cell for as long as one or two months, sometimes even longer than that. He suffered from long-term torture, which caused his health to deteriorate. He became extremely thin. In about October 2004, Chen Jun brutally beat Mr. Wu until he lost consciousness.

2. Practitioner Mr. Xu Huaquan has a Masters degree from Beijing University. He used to work in the Beijing Developing and Renovation Bureau, and was also once a manager in a Japanese company. However, he was imprisoned for eight years because he refused to renounce Falun Dafa. When he was detained in the 12^th Ward, Chen threatened that if Mr. Xu did not give up Falun Gong, he would be locked in a "small cell." Chen once set up a "chatting room," and claimed that practitioners could say whatever they wanted. However, Chen planned to use this method to brainwash the practitioners. Some practitioners intended to use this opportunity to clarify the truth to Chen. However, after a while, they realized that it was impossible, and that Chen just wanted to brainwash the practitioners. Eventually, Mr. Xu was locked in the "small cell."

3. Practitioner Mr. Zhang Yanbin is an assistant battalion commander in the army. He was imprisoned for eight years because he practices Falun Gong. When he was detained in the 12^th Ward, he was brutally tortured. Because he refused to cooperate with the unreasonable demands of the guards, he was forced to sit for over 20 hours every day. He could only sleep for one or two hours a day, and the guards often woke him up. He was tortured close to insanity. When the prison guards used brainwashing tactics on Mr. Zhang, he would not cooperate. Chen Jun slapped him on the face and prison guard Meng Fanguo poured a glass of hot tea on his face. Some prisoners lifted him up by his head and feet, and then forcefully hit his buttocks onto the ground. Sometimes, one prisoner would hold his legs, another would hold his body, and a third would use a tooth brush to roughly brush his private parts.

4. Practitioner Mr. Shi Qingwen is over 60 years old and lives in Shunyi. He had also been locked up in a "small cell" by Chen Jun.

5. On March 9, 2006, practitioners Ma Ang, Ma Jin, and Tang Jichang were all locked up in "small cells." They were put in shackles and handcuffs, and suffered from even more severe torture. Although they went on hunger strikes to protest this treatment, the prison guards did not let them sit, sleep or rest. Late at night, one would often hear the sound of metal chains from the "small cell." These practitioners became very weak and had difficulty walking. They could only move forward when the criminal inmates carried them.

Mr. Tang Jinchang, in particular, had to be carried by the inmates because his legs would not move anymore.

When the torture methods failed to make the practitioners renounce their belief, Chen Jun changed the method to constant sitting. After three days, prison guards, Chen and some others asked Mr. Ma Ang's wife to come to the prison to persuade him to give in. Upon seeing her husband being tortured like that, Mr. Ma's wife started to cry. Prison guards also asked his mother to persuade him. They read her letter in front of over one hundred people at a ward assembly. In the meantime, Mr. Tang Jichang was suffering from brutal torture. The guards ordered some prisoners to hit Mr. Tang's head with their hands, and pinch his body. As a result, his body was covered in blue bruises. However, under this situation, the prison guards still forced him to write his personal reflections. Because he was in handcuffs, it was difficult for him to write, "Although I am suffering from such torture, I don't feel bitter, instead I feel happy, because I'm a Falun Gong practitioner." The prison guards continued to torture him. A few days later, he started to show signs of a mental collapse.

After Mr. Tang recovered, he went to talk to Chen Jun several times, demanding Chen to give him a reason for his torture. However, guard Fan, who witnessed prisoners beating Mr. Tang, denied that he knew anything about it.

6. In 2005, before being released from the prison, practitioner practitioner Mr. Wang Hongwei was locked up in the "small cell" for two months. Mr. Wang had accidentally poked his eyes with a needle while making soccer balls in the prison, and his eyesight was poor. However, Chen Jun still would not allow him to sleep inside the "small cell," hence Mr. Wang's eyes were swollen.

7. Practitioners Mr. Wu Jun and Mr. Qin Wei were also detained in the 12^th Ward from the end of 2005 to early 2006. Mr. Wu Jun was locked up in the "small cell" the entire time. Mr. Qin was also held in the "small cell" almost the entire time because the prison guards claimed that he distributed Teacher's lectures. On March 9, the two practitioners were transferred to the 8^th Ward.

In 2004, Qianjin Prison organized a blood drive. The 9^th and 12^th Wards where practitioners were detained also demanded people to volunteer. Some practitioners at the 9^th Ward volunteered, but nobody at the 12^th Ward did. Hence, Chen Jun gathered all the practitioners of the 12^th Ward, and called the practitioners "selfish" for not volunteering, regardless of the principle of "volunteering." The number of volunteers in Chen's ward was smaller than the number in the 9^th Ward. Chen Jun lost the competition against the 9^th Ward; therefore Chen did not look good in front of his leaders.

In early March 2005, Chen Jun gathered everyone who was detained in the 12^th Ward and used a fake Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party to confuse people. He pounded on the table, and fiercely yelled that if someone dared to disobey, he would "argue" with him. The atmosphere was one of terror. After being detained under this horrifying circumstance for a long time, and after Chen's sudden threat, Tongzhou practitioner Mr. Chang Guiyou's blood pressure rose to over 200. He was sent to the hospital where his blood vessel burst. He was later transferred to Tianjin Hospital where he passed away a few days later.

In January 2000, the criminal inmates who monitored practitioners noticed that some practitioners had distributed Teacher's lectures, or had said something that was "sensitive." The prisoners then reported the practitioners. As a result, the practitioners were locked up in "small cells." Due to the fact that Falun Gong practitioners were frequently detained in "small cells," practitioners tried to negotiate with the prison authority, but to no avail. The situation was very bad at that time. Several practitioners went to negotiate with Chen Jun, and more and more practitioners followed. They decided to choose some practitioners as representatives to negotiate with Chen. However, after a few days of talking, Chen decided to use more severe means to torture practitioners.

On March 9, Chen ordered armed guards to monitor the entire commons area. The guards also blocked all of the entries of the cells and started to take some practitioners away. Under the excuse that practitioners were "disrupting the prison order," they took away seven practitioners including Guan Zhisheng, Wang Weiyu, Wang Yi, Zhang Jian, Huang Jian, Qin Wei and Wu Jun.

In the meantime, the whole ward was under "strict discipline." Some prison guards threatened the practitioners and said, "Whoever secretly collects information, or discusses what to do, will be strictly disciplined!" Later, it was said that the seven practitioners were transferred to the 8^th Ward where they were separately interrogated. In November, the prison conducted a comprehensive investigation of the practitioners. As a result, Ma Ang, Ma Jin and Tang Jichang (whose arms and legs were disabled) were once again detained in "small cells." In addition, they were put in shackles and handcuffs. The practitioners started a hunger strike to protest.

(1) "Small cell" - The detainee is locked up in a very small cell individually. The guards handcuff the practitioner with their arms behind his/her back in a fixed position, in which the practitioner can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served to detainees locked up in a small cell during the daytime. During the night, rats run about. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.

February 28, 2007

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/3/1/149928.html