(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioner Mr. Feng Zhen from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, was unlawfully imprisoned for seven years in the Shayang-Fanjiatai Prison because of his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. On October 28, 2008, the day of his release, Feng Zhen was illegally arrested again by police and taken to Yangyuan Brainwashing Center in Wuchang City for further persecution.
Feng Zhen's relatives had traveled several hundred miles to the prison to get him. As they were waiting for the paperwork for his release, they were unexpectedly informed that because of Feng Zhen's sickness, he had already been transferred out of the prison the night before. The family didn't believe this and continued asking about Feng Zhen's whereabouts. A prison guard told them that Feng Zhen had been taken away by officers from the Zhongnan Road Police Station in Wuchang District of Wuhan City. When Feng Zhen's family called the police station to check, they were informed that Feng Zhen wasn't there. When they approached the prison guards for more information, the head of the prison came and told them that Feng had been taken away by the 610 Office in Wuhan City, and he strongly advised Feng's family to return to Wuhan.
Feng Zhen's relatives arrived at the prison about 6:00 a.m. After a long trip, and they negotiated with the prison officials until after 10:00 a.m. Eventually, they left the prison, as they had no alternative but to believe what the warden told them.
Immediately after Feng's family left the prison, officials from the 610 Office and Wuchang's Zhongnan Road Police Station, along with other prison guards, forcibly tied Feng Zhen's hands behind his back and pushed him into a police vehicle. They then took him to Yanyuan Brainwashing Center in Wuhan City, which is located inside a huge compound near the banks of the Yangtze River. It was not until Feng Zhen's family returned to Wuhan City that they were informed about his transfer to the Yanyuan Brainwashing Center, which is notorious for brutal torture.
Having traveled several hundred miles back and forth, Feng Zhen's family finally arrived at Yanyuan Brainwashing Center, where two people came to the gate to talk to them. They said that Feng Zhen was in the compound, but he would not be released, as he was to be re-educated like a "loved one," enabling him "to give up practicing Falun Gong." Since Feng Zhen's family were exhausted, they begged for the chance to see him, even though they knew these people didn't have the right to keep him. Feng Zhen's family were then permitted to enter the main gate to visit him.
Feng Zhen has now returned home from Yanyuan Brainwashing Center. Below are details of what has taken place during the last seven years.
1. Falun Dafa Practitioners Persecuted in Qinduankou Prison
Seven years ago, Feng Zhen was illegally sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because he practiced Falun Dafa. He was initially detained in Qinduankou prison, which is located on the western outskirts of Hangyang District in Wuhan City. The procedures for persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners was personally organized by Deng Kailiang, who was then a member of the Political Committee. In this prison in particular, the practitioners were first detained in the 17th section, which was specifically set up for that purpose. Prison guard Liu Wensheng was the political instructor for the 17th section and primarily responsible for carrying out the persecution there.
Liu trained a lot of cruel, vicious criminals to persecute Dafa practitioners. All of the Dafa practitioners who were illegally sentenced to imprisonment in the province were detained in one of three prisons: Qinduankou Prison, Fanjiatai Prison, and Hankou City's Hanxi Women's Prison, all of which had criminals trained by Liu. Liu gave direct orders to criminals, including Mei Jianfeng and Yang Mengxiang, who were among the thugs beating Dafa practitioners with wooden benches and steel pipes. They also punched and kicked practitioners until they were severely injured. In addition to the beatings, the practitioners were forced to perform slave labor.
After going through the initial torture, Dafa practitioners were then divided into different sections to receive further persecution. Every practitioner was to be monitored by one or more inmates, around the clock, which even included using the toilet. They were not given water for doing their own washing, but had to do things for the inmate cell heads.
On March 10, 2006, at a "rally of criticism" in Qinduankou Prison, practitioners Feng Zhen and Zhou Jiangang were brutally tortured by inmates on direct instructions from prison guard Qin, for shouting "Falun Dafa is good." They were then put into solitary confinement until April 25, 2006, causing Zhou Jiangang's health to seriously deteriorate. He was close to dying.
2. The Brutal Persecution of Dafa Practitioners at Shayang-Fanjiatai Prison
After the persecution was exposed to the international community, it sparked widespread condemnation and criticism. For the sake of evading exposure by overseas media, CCP officials had 36 Falun Dafa practitioners, including Mr. Feng Zhen, transferred separately in two groups, to a sparsely populated and relatively isolated area, where Shayang-Fanjiatai prison is located. The transfers were undertaken in February and March of 2007.
At that time, Fanjiatai Prison held 56 Dafa practitioners, including 20 who had been previously detained. The prison set up three new sub-sections: 4th section 1st sub-section, 2nd section, and 3rd section 7th sub-section. In each section, there were one prison guard and two inmate monitors for each Dafa practitioner. In addition, three criminals were ordered to be on-duty in each prison cell for close monitoring of the Dafa practitioners day and night. The practitioners were locked inside the cells around the clock. Brushing teeth, using the toilet, eating, and sleeping had to be carried out as a group. Dafa practitioners were allowed to go in or out of a cell only when accompanied by a lead monitor, and if the on-duty monitoring inmates also agreed to it.
In each cell, inmates forced the Dafa practitioners to sit in front of their beds, and did not allow them to talk to other practitioners. At times they were sent to solitary confinement, completely cut off from contact.
The prison staff used various excuses to return packages sent by the families of Dafa practitioners. For daily necessities, spending was limited to less than 100 yuan per month. Forced head-shaving was done twice a month. Mosquito netting was not allowed to be used in the summer, even though there were many mosquitoes. As soon as practitioners sat on the bed or a bench with their eyes closed during a break or at noon, the guards made the inmate monitors disrupt them at once from getting a moment of quiet or rest. This was intended to wear down the practitioners' resolve in the long run.
Usually, Fanjiatai Prison allows inmates to visit with their families whenever they came, but the families of Dafa practitioners were only allowed to visit once a month. In addition, the family members of practitioners had to obtain a certificate from the local 610 Office stating that they did not practice Falun Gong themselves. No practitioners were allowed to visit.
Practitioner Liao Yuanhua was cruelly persecuted further after he exposed the prison guards' use of torture. After the persecution was exposed, staff from the Fanjiatai Prison and the Hubei 610 Office arrested Liao and sent him for brainwashing shortly after his release.
3. Out of One Bad Situation and Into Another
Today, although Feng Zhen completed his prison term, he has been transferred to the Yangyuan Brainwashing Center.
The staff at the Yangyuan Brainwashing Center have used torture, drugs, intimidation, and other means to assault Dafa practitioners both physically and mentally. This diminished somewhat after the persecution was widely exposed outwardly, but continued in a more covert fashion.
Currently, guards control the amount of sleep a Falun Gong practitioner can have depending on how determined the practitioner is. If a practitioner does not cooperate, he is deprived of more sleep and then flooded with false scriptures to confuse him. If the practitioner still does not give in to them and give up Falun Gong, they will start to use other means. For example,
(1.) The guards put a practitioner into a conference room that has covered windows and locked doors. Several men wave long sticks and bang the table while interrogating the practitioner. They berate the practitioner and throw water at the practitioner's face to intimidate him.
(2.) Handcuffs are used to chain the practitioner to the bars of a window. Sometimes, both hands are held up and attached, and sometimes one hand is handcuffed high and one hand is handcuffed low. All the while the guards berate the practitioner. Sometimes the practitioner is taken to a solitary confinement cell and handcuffed with both arms outstretched to the side. In the summer time, the solitary cell is extremely hot and infested by mosquitoes and bugs.
(3.) The practitioner is forced to stand on a piece of paper that slanders the founder of Falun Dafa. Sometimes the guards will ruin Teacher's picture in front of the practitioner. They force the practitioner to count character strokes of slogans slandering Falun Gong and Teacher, and force the practitioner to read the text out loud. If the practitioner does not cooperate, they start beating the practitioner. Some practitioners' hands were injured or broken by the handcuffing, and the guards then beat the injured spots.
(4.) Practitioners are forced to stand under the sweltering sun until they are burned and dehydrated.
(5.) Practitioners are forced to run. If the practitioner can no longer run, two people pull the practitioner around. During these days, the practitioner is not allowed to sleep at all. The purpose is to wear down the practitioners physically and mentally, so that they will be more apt to give up Falun Gong in an exhausted state.
(6.) Drugs are hidden in food or directly injected into practitioners.
The head of the former practitioners who became collaborators was Gong Lianghan. She worked very hard to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. According to former 610 Office members, Gong Lianghan wrote a booklet on how to "transform" Dafa practitioners. She organized her brainwashing techniques and various other torture means, and distributed her booklet everywhere. She has visited almost every brainwashing center in Wuhan and persecuted many Falun Gong practitioners.
Individuals who have taken part in persecuting Falun gong practitioners:
4th Prison Section captain at Shayang Shen Jianjun. His police badge number is 4244350.
The warden's police badge number is 4244321.
Phone number of the prison: 86-724-8570035
Yangyuan Brainwashing Center chief's phone: 86-27-65172069