Name: Li Mingtao (李明涛)
Gender: Male
Age: 41
Address: Chaoyang Road, Handan City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Bank Clerk in Handan Construction Bank
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 25, 2001
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shijiazhuang Fourth Prison (石家庄第四监狱)
City: Handan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use, denied visitation
(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Li Mingtao, 41, was a bank clerk at Handan Construction Bank. He lived on Chaoyang Road in Handan. Because he refused to give up practicing Falun Gong, in 2003 Mr. Li was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was detained in the Shijiazhuang Fourth Prison. His wife was forced to divorce him. Mr. Li's father, Mr. Li Jiagong, was a retired senior engineer of the Handan Mechatronics Research Institute and was also a Falun Gong practitioner. He died due to persecution. Mr. Li's two sisters also suffered harassment and hardship because of his arrest.
The suffering endured by Mr. Li Mingtao and his family is just one example among millions of Falun Gong practitioners amidst the persecution.
1. Mr. Li Mingtao Arrested, Sentenced, and Tortured
On August 25, 2001, police from the Hanshan District Police Department arrested Mr. Li and several other practitioners. They confiscated the practitioners' cash, ID's, and cell phones. They later ransacked their homes and confiscated all Falun Dafa books, cash, bank books, and other valuable belongings.
Torture re-enactment: shocking with electric batons
The police interrogated Mr. Li and the other practitioners using brutal torture methods. The officers shocked the practitioners with high-voltage electric batons and hung them up for long periods of time. As a result, practitioners' hands, feet, arms, and legs were badly swollen and the handcuffs cut into their flesh. The guards also whipped the soles of their feet with wicker sticks and did not allowed them to sleep for long periods of time. After twenty-plus days of mental and physical abuse, the practitioners were sent to the Handan First Detention Center. The practitioners held hunger strikes to protest the illegal arrests and torture, but they were subjected to brutal forced-feeding.
Torture re-enactment: hanging from the back
On July 3, 2003, the Hanshan District Court secretly sentenced Mr. Li to 11 years in prison. Mr. Li appealed to the Handan Intermediate Court, but the court upheld the original sentence. On November 13, 2003, Mr. Li was secretly sent to Shijiazhuang Fourth Prison. His family did not received any official notification regarding his arrest, sentence, or detainment.
In the Shijiazhuang Fourth Prison, the detained Falun Gong practitioners were allocated to different divisions or wards. Three to four inmates were assigned to monitor each practitioner around the clock. The prison guards instigated inmates to persecute the practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners became the prisoners' prisoners. To satisfy the prison guards and win reductions in their prison terms, the inmates tortured practitioners with various methods. The practitioners were separated from each other to prevent the torture from being exposed.
Right after Mr. Li was transferred to the prison, he was detained in the “transformation class”, which was in a hotel. He was confined to a room under the monitor of three inmates, and the curtains were closed all the time. Mr. Li was forced to sit on a stool in a corner. The inmates beat him and did not allow him to sleep. Since Mr. Li refused to cooperate with them or to renounce Falun Gong, Zhao Jun, a prison guard from the Education Division, was so furious that he jammed nails under the fingernails of Mr. Li's little finger and ring finger. Later Mr. Li was beaten many more times. Mr. Li's torture was not revealed until April of 2004.
In May of 2006, he was again transferred to the “transformation class”. Three inmates were assigned to torture him for a month.
By now, Mr. Li has been imprisoned for ten years, but the prison officials refused him any visitation from his family.
2. Mr. Li's Father, Mr. Li Jiagong, Persecuted to Death
Mr. Li Jiagong began to practice Falun Gong in 1995. His high blood pressure disappeared shortly afterward. That miracle encouraged others in his family to begin practicing Falun Gong. The entire family became happy.
On April 25, 1999, Mr. Li Jiagong went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. After his return, police officer Song from Guangmingqiao Police Station often came to his home to harass him.
On July 20, 1999, he was tricked into visiting a hotel and was detained there for five days, but he refused to renounce Falun Gong. Later, the police ransacked his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books and a picture of Falun Gong's Founder. Later, Ma Luchang, the Party Secretary of the Handan Mechatronics Research Institute, sent him and several elderly practitioners to brainwashing classes on several occasions in an attempt to force them into giving up practicing Falun Gong.
In 2001, officials from the Handan Mechatronics Research Institute, police from the Guangmingqiao Police Station, and officials from the Handan City 610 Office again arrested Mr. Li Jiagong and sent him to the Linzhang Brainwashing Center. For over 20 days, he was forced to watch videos defaming Falun Gong. However, Mr. Li remained steadfast and refused to renounce Falun Gong.
In 2006, Mr. Li Jiagong was arrested again for mailing Falun Gong materials to people, and he was detained in the Sucao Police Station. Police handcuffed him to a chair, and he was deprived of sleep for more than a week. Mr. Li was then 63 years old, and he has since suffered from a bad cough. Eventually, he developed a respiratory hernia. Police tried to send him to a detention center; however, when he arrived there, his systolic blood pressure was more than 200mmHg (normal is between 90 and 120), and thus two detention centers refused to accept him. Later, the police extorted 3,000 yuan (~475 USD) from his family and finally released him.
Since Mr. Li Mingtao was sentenced and sent to prison, Mr. Li Jiagong went to the prison many times to try to see his son, but his requests were repeatedly rejected. The police and officials from Mr. Li Jiagong's work often came to his home to harass and threaten him. Under long-term mental stress and pressure, plus an illness from detention, Mr. Li Jiagong passed away on January 13, 2009.
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