Additional Information Regarding the Death of Mr. Liang Zhenxing (Photo) 
 

Name: Liang Zhenxing (梁振兴)
Gender: Male
Age: 46
Address: Changchun City, Jilin Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: May 1, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2002
Most recent place of detention: Gongzhuling City Prison, Jilin Province (吉林省公主岭监狱)
City: Gongzhuling
Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Detention, illegal sentencing, beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced-feedings, brainwashing

Falun Gong Mr. Liang Zhenxing died on May 1, 2010, in Gongzhuling Central Hospital under the surveillance of Gongzhuling City Prison guards. He had been incarcerated in several prisons, including Jilin Prison, Tiebei Prison, Shiling Prison in Siping City, and, lastly, Gongzhuling Prison.

Mr. Liang Zhenxing in custody in March 2002

Falun Gong truth-clarification videos including "Falun Dafa Around the World" and "Self-immolation or Staged Act?" were broadcast for about 50 minutes at around 8:00 p.m. on March 5, 2002, on eight Changchun City cable TV network channels. Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader who started the persecution, was shocked and angered by the broadcasts, and issued a secret order to "kill [those responsible for the incident] without pardon." The police arrested more than 5,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Changchun City.

During the arrests, at least seven practitioners were beaten to death and 15 were sentenced to between four years and 20 years in prison. Mr. Liang Zhenxing and Mr. Liu Chengjun were each handed19-year sentences, and Ms. Zhou Runjun was given a 20-year sentence. These were the longest terms exacted upon Falun Gong practitioners since the persecution started in 1999.

Siping Prison officials transferred Mr. Liang to Gongzhuling Prison in December 2009 but did not tell his family. His family deposited 1,000 yuan for him with Siping Prison during the Chinese New Year, but they did not hear from Mr. Liang that he had received the money. His family called the Finance Section of Siping Prison and were told that Mr. Liang had been transferred. The money was returned to Mr. Liang's family the day following their inquiry.

The afternoon of April 12, 2010 was visitation day. Mr. Liang's family went to Gongzhuling Prison to go through the procedures required to visit Mr. Liang. They were told that they had to present an introductory letter issued by the Changchun City 610 Office, proving that they were not Falun Gong practitioners. Unless they had such letter, they were forbidden from visiting him. Mr. Liang's family said they had not seen Mr. Liang for more than four months and only wanted to make sure that he was well. Several guards in the reception room said that the prison had a rule - that no one would be permitted to meet their family members without "proof" from the 610 Office or without being "reformed." In the end Mr. Liang's family turned to the prison's head office and explained the situation to the officials there, who finally permitted them to see Mr. Liang. When they finally met with Mr. Liang, they saw that he was emaciated, had difficulty walking and speaking, and his voice was hoarse.

The prison authorities informed Mr. Liang's family on April 25, 2010 that he was sent to Gongzhuling Central Hospital. The initial diagnosis was that he was in shock. There was effusion in his right pleural cavity and tuberculosis in both lungs, accompanied by holes and inflammation and interstitial inflammation-like changes between both lungs. Mr. Liang's family arrived at the hospital and found that Mr. Liang was emaciated, was on oxygen, and had been put on an IV drip. His feet were swollen and there was subcutaneous bleeding on both feet, with blood blisters that often oozed fluid. A doctor often applied topical medication on his feet. Red marks appeared on his chest and back, resulting from subcutaneous bleeding. He was nearly blind in his right eye. He was in such pain that he had to clench his teeth.

Mr. Liang coughed up blood on April 30, 2010. His family petitioned for a medical parole. Penalty Section head Liu said that medical parole for him would only be granted to a member of his immediate family with a Changchun City-registered permanent address. Only Mr. Liang's wife met this requirement, but she refused to apply for a medical parole for him because she was unable to cover the medical expenses and nursing care fees since Mr. Liang had been in custody about eight years. Mr. Liang's wife asked to have Mr. Liang transferred to Changchun Tuberculosis Hospital, but the prison authorities denied her request, claiming that it was not their designated hospital. Mr. Liang's brother and sister requested a medical parole for him, but the prison authorities said that they did not meet the residency requirement.

Requests for parole from other members of Mr. Liang's family were also turned down because, according to the officials, "They are rural residents."

A partial record of the gross abuse and mistreatment inflicted upon Mr. Liang

Before he was sentenced on September 2002, Mr. Liang was held at Tiebei District Detention Center in Changchun. Every two or three days, a guard took him to be interrogated. They would cover his eyes, bring him out of the detention center to somewhere near Jingyuetan in Changchun, to a secret place where they tortured him to try to get him to "confess." They tortured him in all kinds of ways, until wounds covered his body. They would then take him back.

During the trial of 15 practitioners in the Changchun City Intermediate Court in mid-September 2002, the police took them to individual rooms in the courthouse and beat and shocked them with electric batons. Mr. Liu Chengjun, Ms. Chen Yanmei, Mr. Liang Zhenxing, and others were later carried back to their cells. Regarding the police atrocities committed in the courthouse, an official from Jilin Prison claimed, "What happened in the courthouse had nothing to do with us. Changchun City Police Department did that."

Mr. Liang was handed a 19-year prison sentence and held in Jilin Prison, Division No. 6. Guard Zhou ordered inmates to beat him. They put him in the corrections center in 2002 to torture him twice on an "Immobilization Bed," a device that consists of a 6-foot-long wooden board with steel plates fixed at each end. Holes in the steel plates are used to attach handcuffs and shackles. In addition to "stretching," this devise is mainly used to immobilize a person. The victims were only released to have a bowel movement; urinating and sleeping spelled no such release. The longer a victim is restrained on such a device, the greater the pain. Some victims subjected to this torture have become permanently disabled.

Mr. Liang, Mr. Lei Ming, Mr. Liu Chengyun, Ms. Wu Yifeng, Mr. Wang Jing, and others were subjected to torture to extort a confession in mid-March 2003 at the 1st Division of Changchun City Police Department and the Development Zone Criminal Police Team.

Li Ming from Jilin Prison beat Mr. Liang with plastic tubes near the 2003 Chinese New Year. Li knocked Mr. Liang down and Mr. Liang's head hit a radiator. He bled profusely and lost consciousness. Guards also forced Mr. Liang to sit on a wooden ledge less than one inch wide and even to sit on the sharp edge of the angle steel for more than 12 hours every day. As a result, his buttocks festered and bled.

Ward 6 head Wei Xianghui told the prisoners who monitored practitioners, "You must not be soft in dealing with Falun Gong practitioners." Head prisoners in Ward 6 Li Ming, Zhao Guangcun, Liu Gan, and Chen Zhiqiang severely abused and beat Mr. Liang, Mr. Yang Guang, and other practitioners. They squeeze the victim's testicles, poked their fingers into the spaces between the victim's ribs, whipped them with a rubber hose filled with water, and kicked their backs with their heels.

Mr. Liang was placed under strict control in July 2004 for more than two months, because he refused to be "reformed." The tortures he was subjected to included: the tiger bench; having his head covered with a plastic bag; having pins nailed into his fingernails; having his arms handcuffed behind his back; being shocked with an electric baton, and being burned with a red-hot screwdriver heated on an electric stove. Mr. Liang was once exposed to freezing cold overnight during the winter--after his clothes were stripped off and cold water had been poured on him.

Mr. Liang was transferred from Jilin Prison to Tiebei Prison in Changchun City in early April 2005. He kept studying the teachings of Falun Gong and doing the Falun Gong exercises. Ward head Wang Xiaoguang and political instructor Zhang Lizhou ordered inmates to beat him.

Mr. Liang was transferred again, in the second half of 2005, from Tiebei Prison to Shiling Prison, where he was held in the Education Ward. He was forbidden to speak with anybody. Mr. Liang held a more than three-month-long hunger strike in protest. He was very weak, and his condition was critical.

Mr. Liang started another hunger strike on May 6, 2006. The prison hospital doctors force-fed him while he was shackled and handcuffed to a bed frame. He had to relieve himself in bed. The feeding tube was left in him after force-feeding to increase the torment. The prison officials informed Mr. Liang's wife on May 12, 2006 to come and see her husband. She went to visit him in Siping Hospital, where she saw her husband in handcuffs and shackles. He told her that he was forbidden to speak with anyone while in prison. Those who looked at him or talked to him would incur a flurry of beatings. The prison authorities intended to videotape Mr. Liang and his wife's meeting, but Mr. Liang's wife absolutely refused to permit them to.

Shiling Prison officials called Mr. Liang's family (his elder brother and others) on June 5, 2006, telling them to visit Mr. Liang, but they didn't allow his wife to visit him. They said Mr. Liang had been on a hunger strike for nearly a month and he was extremely weak. Two guards carried Mr. Liang out to meet his family; a feeding tube was still in his nostril. About 16 guards surrounded the family. This time the prison authorities videotaped the whole visit--from behind Mr. Liang. When the family protested the videotaping, a guard threaten them, saying they could leave if they did not want to visit Mr. Liang.

It was hot in June 2006. Most people were wearing T-shirts, but Mr. Liang had on winter clothing. He said he was cold. One relative lifted his clothes to try to find what wrong with him, but prison officials hurriedly carried Mr. Liang away, and the visit was ended.

Changchun City 610 Office agents tried to force practitioners in Shiling Prison to give up Falun Gong in July 2006. Mr. Liang refused to comply. The guards force-fed him through a nasal tube and left the tube in at the end of each day's feeding, to prolong his agony.

Two prisoners often carried Mr. Liang to the second floor in an attempt to brainwash him. Mr. Liang refused to listen or watch the slander. Education Ward head Yin Shoudong, guard Yang Tiejun, officer Wu Tie, and others shocked him with four electric batons simultaneously. He could no longer bear such torture and jumped off the staircase twice. On one occasion he hit his head against the edge of the radiator and fractured his skull. The injury left a deep scar about two inches in diameter.

Shiling Prison officials severely abused practitioners on March 2, 2007. They placed the practitioners in solitary confinement, hung them up, humiliated them, verbally abused them, and tied them up on the death bed. Mr. Liang was forced to sit on a small bench while shackled. The guards urged prisoners to verbally and physically abuse him. Perpetrators participating in this round of abuse were Yan Dequan, Zhu Yonghua, and Wang Enguo.

Mr. Liang was transferred in December 2009, from Shiling Prison in Siping City to Gongzhuling Prison in Jilin Province. He was near death from the torture and abuse he had experienced. Mr. Liang Zhenxing died at around 10:00 a.m. on May 1, 2010 in Gongzhuling Central Hospital.

Ms. Chen Guang Tortured and Illegally Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

Name: Chen Guang (陈洸)
Gender: Female
Age: 47
Address: Zhangdian District, Zibo City (淄博市张店区)
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 12, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Zibo City Detention Center (淄博市看守所)
City: Zibo City (淄博市)
Province: Shandong (山东)
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, illegal sentencing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, torture, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use
Key Persecutors: Huantai County Court in Zibo City (桓台县法院), Huantai County public security authorities (桓台县公检法)

In April 2010, Huantai County Court illegally sentenced Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Chen Guang to seven years in prison. Ms. Chen appealed the case. However, the local authorities held her file in the county and would not send her appeal up to the intermediate court. As a result, her case cannot be examined.

On May 12, 2009, the county police pretended to be movers and arrested Ms. Chen at her home. While Ms. Chen was detained, she was injected with unknown medications, which made her unable to walk and gave her body the chills.

Ms. Chen is a Falun Gong practitioner from Zhangdian District, Zibo City. She used to have uremia and other illnesses, and her condition did not improve even after numerous medical treatments. Fortunately, after Ms. Chen was introduced to Falun Gong, her uremia disappeared after a few months of practicing. She became healthy both mentally and physically. 

In May 2009, two Falun Gong practitioners from Huantai County were arrested when they were distributing Falun Gong informational materials. Under brutal torture, one of the practitioners gave out Ms. Chen's name. Around 5:00 p.m. on May 12, 2009, Huantai County 610 Office agents arrested Ms. Chen at her home, ransacked her home and stole many of her personal possessions, including 60,000 yuan cash, a car, checks and other valuables totaling 300,000 yuan.

Ms. Chen is still being detained at Zibo City Detention Center.