(Clearwisdom.net) Practitioner Mr. Li Heng from Zhuozhou City practices Falun Gong together with his wife Zhang Chunfang. They were persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party and became homeless to avoid further harassment. Later on, they were illegally arrested and sentenced to a forced labor camp for three years and one year respectively. Mr. Li Heng was tortured and consequently developed cerebral thrombosis in the labor camp. He was sent to see doctors outside the prison, and he has still not recovered.

Mr. Li Heng, 49 years old, is from Yongle Village in the Shuangtai District of Zhuozhou City. He and his wife Zhang Chunfang started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. After they started cultivation, they became both physically and mentally healthy, and his family lived in harmony.

After July 20, 1999, the persecution of Falun Gong began all over China. On the night of April 17, 2001, the local authorities burst into Mr. Li Heng's home and searched the house. The couple was not home, and only their two children (sister and younger brother) were there. After they searched the house, they asked the kids where their parents were. The kids said they did not know, so the police proceeded to beat the two kids. They struck their faces with books and kicked them. After beating them, they took away the kids in order to lure the couple home. After that, the couple became destitute and homeless in order to avoid being arrested at home.

Mr. Li Heng and his wife Zhang Chunfang then rented a room in Beijing, but they were caught when somebody investigated their IDs. The policemen found their book Zhuan Falun and brought them to the police station. First, the policemen handcuffed them to a chair for a day and a night without offering them food. Later, they interrogated Li Heng and asked where he was from. In order not to bring trouble to his local government, he did not say anything. The policemen beat his feet and toes with a stick until they became black and bruised. Later, the couple was transferred to the detention center in Beijing.

In the detention center, Zhang Chunfang went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. On the eighth day of her hunger strike, they started to force-feed her. A couple of people held her down on the ground, restraining her hands and feet and pulling her hair, while they inserted a rubber tube into her stomach. When the force-feeding would not work for some reason, they inserted the tube into her nose. After this, they grabbed her arm and her hair, dragged her to a small cell, and threw her on the ground. Because Zhang Chunfang was so weak, they were afraid of inserting the tube again, so they started to transfuse the fluid. In order avoid responsibility, they transferred the couple to Zhuozhou Detention Center.

In Zhuozhou Detention Center, the guards demanded 20,000 yuan from their family members, even though they did not have the money. So they were detained there for three months. As a result, Mr. Li Heng was sentenced to three years in a forced labor camp, and Zhang Chunfang was sentenced to one year in a forced labor camp.

They encountered all kinds of physical punishments in the labor camp. They were forced to half squat, with their hands behind their heads, for days and were prohibited from sleeping for couple of days and nights. They were also forced to squat in the corridor to be bitten by mosquitoes. Ms. Zhang Chunfang was sent back home after a year. Mr. Li Heng was tortured and as a consequence developed cerebral thrombosis.