Name: Bai Sanyuan (白三元)
Gender: Male
Age: 47
Address: Jinxia Village, Pingbao Township, Jingyuang County, Baiyin City, Gansu Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 16, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Lanzhou Prison (兰州监狱)
City: Lanzhou
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, illegal sentencing, beatings, imprisonment, torture, force-feedings, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use
(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Bai Sanyuan has now been sentenced to six years in prison and was taken to the Sixth Ward of the Lanzhou Prison on July 12, 2010. He has been on a protest hunger strike since the end of May. His face is pale and he is as thin as a skeleton. He looks like a completely different person now than he did just a few months ago. Mr. Bai also suffers from muscular atrophy in the legs and lumbar disc herniation from his last imprisonment.
Mr. Bai Sanyuan
When Bai Sanyuan arrived at the prison, a guard with ID Number 0333814 kicked his lower back seven or eight times and slapped his face a dozen times during the physical checkup.
He was then force-fed once a week with 500 ml of a mixture of corn porridge and powdered milk. More recently, he has been force-fed and given intravenous fluids daily. He passed out because of his extremely feeble condition on July 28 and it has been reported that he had leg convulsions while unconscious.
Political director of the prison ward Xu talked to Mr. Bai's family before a family visit on August 2. He asked them to persuade Mr. Bai to stop the hunger strike, write guarantee statements in exchange for a shortened prison term, and pay a 300 yuan "fee."
Mr. Bai's family reported the beating to the Gansu Prison Administration on August 3. Liu, a department head, listened to their complaint. After calling the prison, he denied the beating, and stated that the prison took no responsibility in the case.
Ten Years of Imprisonment, Torture and Abuse for Practicing Falun Gong
In 2000, Mr. Bai was imprisoned for three years because he appealed for the right to practice Falun Dafa. While imprisoned, he was tortured to the extent that he was in critical condition many times. It is rumored that he was on the brink of death twice. When Mr. Bai was released, he had injuries all over his body. After his release, he was repeatedly arrested and detained, and forced to flee home to avoid further persecution.
Imprisoned for Appealing in Beijing
Mr. Bai took up the practice of Falun Dafa in 1997. Just days after July 20, 1999, when the persecution started, Pingbao Township Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary Wang, police station director Zhong Zhenyu, officer Wang Xincheng, officer Du Xinwu, villager committee director Bai Mingjun, and others came to his home several times, and tried to coerce him to give up the practice. As the persecution escalated, villager committee director Bai confiscated Mr. Bai's Falun Dafa books, banners and and other Falun Dafa items from his home.
Township government workers Liu Tao and Wu visited Bai Sanyuan's home on an unrelated issue in August 2000. They saw the picture of Falun Dafa Master Li Hongzhi hanging in the middle of the wall and reported him to police. Within an hour, officer Wang Xincheng and Du Xinwu came and took the picture away.
Mr. Bai went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa on October 26, 2000. Police arrested him and detained him first at the Tiananmen Square Police Station, then at the Haidian Detention Center in Qinghe Town. To force him to report his name and address, guards ordered inmates to deprive him of sleep. The inmates took turns watching him. They poked his eyes, head, and face whenever he closed his eyes. They taunted him in other various means until he gave his name and address. He was handed over to officers Ma, and Zhong Zhenyu from the Political and Security Office of the Jingyuan County Police Department after he had been detained in Beijing for eighteen days. They took him directly to the drug rehab center at the Jungyuan County Police Department Detention Center where he was illegally held for one month. During his detention, guards ordered him to sweep the courtyard of the police department, stoke the coal-fired boilers and clean out the soot and ash. They extorted 150 yuan from him when he was released.
It was less then one month after his release when agents from the Lanzhou City 610 Office arrested Mr. Bai while he and his wife were waiting for a bus at a bus station in Lanzhou City on January 7, 2001. He resisted and was beaten. His head and face were bruised, his right thumb was broken and his nose was bleeding. He lost consciousness after a blow to the head and was taken to the Lanzhou City No.1 Detention Center in Xiguoyuan.
Mr. Bai went on a hunger strike to protest his arrest. On the third day, Su Shengfu, the head of the guards, ordered him to be handcuffed, shackled and then to have the handcuffs and shackles wired together. The wire between the handcuffs and shackles was so short that he could not stand or sit upright, or turn while sleeping. He could not use bathroom without help. His hands and wrists were swollen as a result of the handcuffs.
The torture escalated because Mr. Bai refused to renounce his faith in Falun Gong. Guards deprived him of sleep. They put him into a sack, tied his feet together and tied the top of the sack around his neck so that only his head was outside the bag. They then set him in a corner near the door of the restroom for the whole night. He had to call for help whenever he needed to use bathroom, and was verbally abused and humiliated each time. This went on for many days until he gave up his hunger strike.
Forced Labor at the Detention Center
In mid-April 2001, the detention center forced prisoners to peel melon seeds. After five days of this work, Mr. Bai's fingers were swollen, they developed blisters, and then ulcerated. He endured immense pain when peeling the seeds with injured fingers. After that, puss oozed from under his finger nails. The skin under his nails became black. His fingertips were shrinking. It took a long time for his fingers to get back to normal after the forced labor ended.
The guards practiced favoritism and would routinely reduce the daily work quota for favored inmates while increasing the quota for others. Inmates were not allowed to sleep, have a decent meal, or use the bathroom freely until their quota was met. Some inmates were tortured by a tyrant in their cells at night for not finishing their quotas. Some of them abruptly died after long term suffering. Most of the deaths that took place in the prison were for this reason.
Hygiene was not even a consideration. Seeds were heaped on the concrete floor in the courtyard, then watered, and stirred by inmates with their hands. Dirt from seeds and the floor were mixed in water. The seeds were soaked in the water to make them easier to peel. Dirt stuck to the seeds. Shells were cracked open with the teeth. Inmates' lips were broken and some inmates had long-term loose bowels. Mr. Wang Guifu, a practitioner from Lanzhou, died after becoming ill because of this work.
Mr. Bai and another practitioners were spared the peeling labor in June after their protests.
Brutal Force-feedings
Guards used murderers and other high security inmates to torture Falun Gong practitioners who went on hunger strikes. The inmates, such as Ren Zhengqiang (who killed three persons including a five-year-old child in a house robbery) sought pleasure in torturing practitioners. Guards ordered the inmates to force-feed practitioners with highly concentrated salt-water solutions. They once put a pound of salt in a small container of fluid. Mr. Bai saw it and took the container to the commander's office. Guard Yang Linquan dragged him out, did not let him speak, and had him force-fed. With no other way out, the desperate Mr. Bai hit his head against the wall and lost consciousness. When he woke up, inmate Yue Gao shouted, "You reported this to the commander, but we still put the salt into it, didn't we?"
Yang Linquan tricked practitioners on hunger strike into opening their mouths. He inserted feeding tubes, and then left them there. He would later twist and pull the tubes in and out to torture his victims. Sometimes he did this not only through the mouth, but also through both nostrils.
Guards ordered inmate Guan Xiaoman to use this torture technique on practitioners who went on a hunger strike. The practitioners' noses started bleeding, and became swollen because of the feeding tubes. The pain escalated in their next force-feeding. Guan moved the tube in and out of Mr. Bai's nostrils one after the other, until his arms were tired. Tears, blood and mucus covered Mr. Bai's face. Seven to ten inmates had to hold each practitioner down during these rounds of torture. It was a horrible scene.
Mr. Bai has suffered such force-feeding twice a day for five days after he went on a hunger strike on July 17. Su Shenfu ordered him to peel melon seeds on July 22. He refused. Su then made him sit on the hot concrete floor under the sun for a whole day. Guards poured water into his cell for many days, and made him sit or sleep without a mat. Yu Gao threatened Mr. Bai and ordered others to hold him to the ground while he snatched his handwritten copies of Falun Dafa lectures to later be burned.
Secret Trial, No Family Visits
Bai Sanyuan, practitioner Mr. He Jianzhong, and a half-dozen others were put on trial in the Lanzhou City Chengguan District Court in early autumn of 2001. Neither their families nor the public were informed of the trial. The two practitioners made the arguments that, firstly, Falun Dafa is good; secondly, practitioners are good people; and thirdly, Master Li is innocent of any crime. The court later sentenced Mr. Bai to three years in prison and held him at the detention center for an indefinite period.
Mr. Bai applied for the right to have family visits many times but his requests were denied. He told the guards that by making this bad decision, they persecuted not only practitioners, but also their own families and kids. He argued that this treatment was against international human rights law, as well as the Chinese Constitution and other laws.
His family visitation was finally granted in 2002 after his persistent protest. His wife was subjected to two years of forced labor in May 2001. When his two kids traveled hundreds of miles to the detention center, they were denied visitation, citing the reason that "the director was out."
Persecution Led to a Living "Skeleton"
After many fruitless protests against his unlimited period of detention, Mr. Bai went on hunger strike again on August 17, 2002. Several days later, the court delivered a verdict, sentencing Mr. Bai to three years in prison. He shredded it in front of the commander office, and continued his hunger strike.
Bai Sanyuan had become extremely feeble after two years of torture. His heart rate was too fast. He had severe anemia, and pain in his hands and feet. He face and tongue felt numb. Guards again subjected him to brutal force-feeding. To hide their crimes from others, they ordered all inmates to stay in their cells whenever practitioners were force-fed. On the first occasion, Mr. Bai spit several times after being fed with salt water. He looked awful days later, and was taken to the forced labor camp hospital where he was given an IV for several days. His feet, legs, hands, and arms became stiff and swollen after ten days. He experienced extensive pain in his legs. He then suffered a puss outbreak periodically, lasting about twenty days each time, on his feet, legs, palms, back of the hands, every knuckle, the skin between thumbs and index fingers, arms, buttocks, waist, genitals, and anus. After two days of swift, contraction-like pains in his anus, he had fecal incontinence. As his situation deteriorated, Mr. Bai's arms and fingers became stiff. He could not feel his legs, fingers, or arms. He was in critical condition, and as thin as a skeleton. His roommates in the hospital called him a "living skeleton."
After they got a doctor's note about Mr. Bai's critical condition, the detention center administrator ordered his sister to pay 2,000 yuan for his release if she could obtain approval from his local government office and police department. But none of the government offices or police would grant approval.
On October 24, the guards took Bai Sanyuan back to the medical office in the detention center. After that, few knew Mr. Bai's situation or if he was still alive. Rumor of his death spread among people outside of the detention center.
Mr. Bai had lost all his ability to care for himself. He was not able to get up from bed. It was cold and he had only a thin blanket. He could not fall asleep again once he woke up in the freezing cold at midnight.
His family visited him before the new year of 2003. When they later tried to visit again, the guards told them, "Bai Sanyuan has been transferred. He is no longer here."
He remained in critical condition until October 2003.
In Critical Condition for a Second Time
On October 16, Mr. Bai and fellow practitioners Mr. Zhang Xiaodong, Mr. Yang Xuegui, and Mr. Wang Yunbo walked towards the gate of the detention center to protest their illegal imprisonment. Guards put handcuffs and shackles on them. They went on a hunger strike to protest. On the sixth day, they were force-fed. The order came from chief Liu Wei, chief Liu Runqing, and executive chief Zhao Guanhu. Xu Yueting and Zhao Ping mixed the liquid, a blend of highly concentrated salt water and phenobarbital. Guan Xiaoman conducted force-feedings. At the same time, guards ordered inmates to beat the practitioners.
Mr. Bai was again left in a critical condition. He was taken to the forced labor camp hospital. It was later confirmed that just a couple of hours before he was admitted to hospital, Mr. Zhang Xiaodong was beaten to death (see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/9/16/64957.html). The guards took the body to the hospital where a doctor issued a death certificate stating that Mr. Zhang died from illness. They routinely forced inmates in the medical office to make false testimonies. Both the detention center and the hospital tried to cover up their crimes. Rumors of Mr. Bai's death spread for a second time.
In the hospital, a guard surnamed Bai and inmates took away the handwritten Falun Dafa lecture that Mr. Bai carried with him. He had difficulty in walking and was unable to use bathroom. A few guards intentionally made things hard for him.
His son heard of the situation and went to visit two months after Mr. Bai was admitted to the hospital. The hospital administration rejected the visit, saying that it was not allowed.
Bai Sanyuan shouted loud praise for Falun Dafa one week before completing his prison term. Guard Ma dragged him by his clothes, knocked him off of his bed, and grabbed him by his throat with both hands. As a result, he had abrasions on both knees. He was released two days after completing his prison term.
Mr. Bai had become disabled and lost the ability to work after three years of imprisonment. When he was released, his whole body was stiff. He had numbness and pain everywhere, especially in his feet, legs, hands, and arms. He had extreme and consistent pain in his fingers and forearms. Sometimes the pain in his feet and legs was so severe that he could not sleep. Sometimes he had difficulty in turning his body because of the pain all over his body. Doctors diagnosed Mr. Bai with cholecystitis, gallstone, severe anemia, and muscle atrophy.
Repeatedly Arrested After His Release
After his release, Bai Sanyuan and his family were repeatedly harassed by officers from the local police station and township government. Just in 2004, they were harassed seven times. On some occasions, officers Wang Dingan and Wang Xinchen from the police station searched their home.
Wang Xinchen; Pu Junwen, Pingbao Village CCP secretary; Yan Yuqing, officer from the Baiyin City Police Department; and other plainclothes officers arrested Mr. Bai at an Autumn Festival in August at his orchard where he was helping his wife harvest apples. They pushed him to the ground, handcuffed his wrists behind his back, and took him to the Pingbao Village Police Station. An officer intentionally put his weight down on top of the handcuffs. The cuffs cut deeply into Mr. Bai's wrists, causing them to swell. He was released after being harassed for several hours. When he came home, he found that his home had been ransacked.
On the evening of September 25, 2005, while Mr. Bai was about to have dinner, Wang, township deputy CCP director, led several people to his house without notification. They saw that he had a copy of the Minghui Weekly, then called Zhang Guowang, an agent from Judiciary Office. Several officers arrived and planned to arrest Mr. Bai but failed because of the resistance from Mr. Bai and from his neighbors.
In April 2006, Yang Fangfang accompanied several unknown people to Mr. Bai's house. No one answered the door. Yang then redirected these people to Mr. Bai's brother's house. After that, his brother was frequently harassed.
One night near the Chinese New Year in 2007, CCP members and officers from the police station checked Bai Sanyuan's house twice within two hours.
Around 5:00 p.m. on April 22, 2008, Zhang Mingrui, deputy director of the Jingyuan County Police Department; Pan Qianrui, director of the Domestic Security Division; along with half a dozen other people broke into Mr. Bai's home. Mr. Bai was not home. They threw his wife to the ground, handcuffed her, illegally searched their home for four hours, and took away a notebook computer, a TV receiver, and Falun Dafa books. Officers ransacked their home again the next morning before dawn. On the third morning, the officers surrounded their orchard in Nanping, and trampled the flax growing in their neighbor's field. Mr. Bai left home to escape further harassment.
The officers searched Nanping for a whole night in June. Villagers knew they were searching for him.
Zhang Mingrui, Pan Jianrui, and six others went to the houses of Mr. Bai's brother and sister in Ningxia Autonomous Region in July, and ordered them to hand over Mr. Bai. That same month, they went to the offices of his brother and his wife's brother in Lanzhou City, and demanded that they hand him over
Pan Jianrui went to the office of his wife's brother a second time in November 2009, and threatened that they would take away his traffic police uniform if he did not turn Mr. Bai in.
Arrested Again
Mr. Bai came home to help his wife on the farm in late April 2010. Zhang Mingrui, Pan Qianrui, and six plainclothes officers surrounded his home at about 7:00 p.m. on May 16. Three officers climbed up the wall onto the roof, jumped down and opened the gate. Mr. Bai hid in the barn. They called in officers from the Baiyin Police Department, the Pingbao Township Police Station, CCP members from the township, and a doctor. They assembled about thirty people altogether. Some time after 10:00 p.m., they shot tear gas canisters into the barn. Mr. Bai lost conscious and was taken to the Jingyuan County Detention Center.
Ms. Wang Gendi, wife of Mr. Bai Sanyuan. Ms. Wang lost a front tooth as a result of police brutality.
Mr. Bai's wife went to the gate tower to escape the police. The officers climbed up the tower, dragged her down, and tied her with phone lines. Her front tooth was knocked out during the struggle.
Two officers from the Jingyuang County Police Department went to Mr. Bai's home again on May 20 and ordered his wife to sign their documents. She refused.
Mr. Bai was tied on a "tiger bench" twice in the detention center, for two days straight the first time, and for eight days around the clock the second time. The chief in charge of torturing Bai Sanyuan was Zhang Hongzhong. Mr. Bai went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was taken to the Jingyuan County Hospital for intravenous injections on the nineteenth day because his lips turned purple, his cheeks collapsed, and he had leg convulsions. Zhang Mingrui brought Mr. Bai's friends and his wife's brother to the hospital and kept them there for a whole day, and ordered them to make him end the hunger strike.
Sentenced to Six Years in Prison
To collect "evidence" against Mr. Bai, on May 26, Pan Qianrui and Zhong Lianrong interrogated practitioners Mr. Bai Yujun and Mr. Chen Fanghai who were imprisoned in the Lanzhou Prison.
The Jinghuan Court held a trial on June 18. Mr. Bai rejected the court appointed attorney, telling him that he didn't need his defense.
The Jingyuan County Procuratorate indicted Mr. Bai on June 22 and set a ten-day appeal period. The court tried the case on June 23 without the presence of Mr. Bai. The following people were at the trial: Ye Shengwang, chief judge; Su Benlu, deputy judge; Li Chunping, deputy judge; Du Zhize, secretary; Zhao Caixia, court appointed attorney from the Zhengping Law Frim; Liang Xizhong, witness and chairman of the Pingbai Township People's Congress; and Wei Liguo, witness.
On June 28, the director of the hospital clearly informed the court and related departments that Mr. Bai was in critical condition. It was the 35th day of his hunger strike. The left side of his body was numb, his left leg had muscle atrophy and his right leg was chained to the bed.
Bai Sanyuan was shackled on the sick bed
The same day, the chief criminal judge of the Baiyin City Intermediate Court and eight people went to the hospital to finish the case. Bai Sanyuan asked them, "How can you rule before my appeal has been heard?" The judge replied, "The Jingyuan County Court has passed the case to us. You made only an oral appeal not a written appeal. So we are not following the judiciary procedure."
The judge was lying. The written appeal had been submitted. Mr. Bai wrote the appeal on his sick bed.
At the end of the appeal he wrote, "It is not a crime to be a good person. It is not a crime to follow the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It is not a crime to have a belief. Falun Dafa guides people to uplift their minds, have compassion in their hearts, return to a moral life. What I did did not violate the constitution or law. It is legal. On the other hand, it is a crime for any organization, agency, or individual to interfere with or deprive me of my rights."
Mr. Bai's family hired an attorney for his second trial. The day after visiting him in the hospital, the attorney was ordered to report to the Lanzhou City 610 Office. After being held in the 610 Office for the whole morning, the attorney withdrew Mr. Bai's plea of innocence.
Mr. Bai was taken to the Sixth Ward of the Lanzhou Prison on July 12, 2010.
Zhang Tingzhen, deputy director of the Jingyuan County Police Department: 86-13909430678 (Cell)
Zhang Wenlin, deputy director of the Jingyuan County Police Department: 86-15109438699 (Cell)
Zhang Mingrui, deputy director of the Jingyuan County Police Department: 86-15109438666 (Cell)
Jingyuan County Detention Center: 86-943-6721408
Jingyuan County Court: 86-943-6121417
