(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Chen Jianzhan, 43, is from Guoyuan Township, Zhenyuan County, Qingyang City in Gansu Province. In July 2013, after being homeless for nine years to avoid persecution, he was arrested again by the local Domestic Security Division when he returned home. He is now in the Zhenyuan County Detention Center.
Mr. Chen Jianzhan used to work for the county government. After he started to practice Falun Dafa in 1997, his hard work was recognized by the Wugou County Government. Between 2000 and 2003, he was recognized as an Outstanding Official four times by the Wugou County Government.
Nine years ago, 34-year-old Mr. Chen was arrested by the Zhenyuan County Police when he was at work. During the following four months of detention, he was tortured until near death, then temporarily released for medical treatment at home. Despite his physical suffering, Mr. Chen escaped to avoid further persecution. Later, the Zhenyuan County Court illegally sentenced him in absentia to seven years in prison.
After Mr. Chen escaped, the police searched the homes of his neighbors, relatives and fellow practitioners for several months. They went to Mr. Chen's home eight times to harass his family. The police forced his elderly mother to cook for them and even attempted to extort money from his parents who already lived in poverty. Several times, police officers with masks broke into Mr. Chen's home in the middle of the night to search the house. They even removed the roof covering with hoes.
At around 9 a.m. on May 18, 2004, right after Mr. Chen finished a meeting at work, he was preparing for a business trip to the countryside. Officer Yang Hongwei from the Wugou County Police Station broke into Mr. Chen's room. Without saying anything or showing any ID, he put handcuffs on Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen shouted: “What are you doing?” Yang Hongwei said: “You know what you did!” Mr. Chen responded that he hadn't done anything.
A colleague of Mr. Chen tried to help him by saying: “Don't arrest him until you are sure.” Yang Hongwei said: “Don't move!” At that time, Director Ma from the police station also came in. He said: “Search the room first.” The police ransacked Mr. Chen's room for nearly two hours, even turning his bed up-side-down. They could not find anything, but they still arrested him. A staff member from Mr. Chen's workplace could not stand it anymore. He said: “You must tell our supervisor before you take him away. Our supervisor is not in today!” Director Ma said: “Go to the police station first!”
In the police station, Director Ma interrogated Mr. Chen, asking him whether he was a Falun Gong practitioner and if he had a printer at home. Mr. Chen denied having a printer and insisted that he had to go back to work. Ma said that the police department had given orders not to release him.
At around 5 p.m., Mr. Chen was taken to a conference room on the second floor of the Zhenyuan County Police Department. There he learned that the police had already ransacked his home and taken all his belongings, including some music VCDs that he bought for his parents. Officer Li Guomin, who ransacked the Chens' home, pointed at Mr. Chen and cursed at him. At night, they did not allow him to go to sleep. They handcuffed him to a table and forced him to stay on the floor for two days and nights. Officer Li Guomin continued to interrogate him. He punched Mr. Chen and verbally abused him. An older man in the office felt sympathy for Mr. Chen, saying: “Just for practicing Falun Gong. It's not a big deal.”
It was said that on the afternoon that Mr. Chen was arrested, his supervisor at work called the police department to get him released. But the police department refused. Mr. Chen's wife thought that he was gone on the business trip and did not know about his arrest until five days later.
On the third day, the police put Mr. Chen in a room on the third floor. There he heard someone's desperate scream. He realized that practitioner Mr. Xi Haoxue was being tortured on the first floor.
Hearing the scream and crying of his fellow practitioner, he could not hold back his tears. Mr. Chen asked to see Mr. Xi. On the first floor, he saw him locked in a big iron cage. The bars of the cage were as thick as fingers, leaving only Mr. Xi's head outside. Several officers surrounded him with electric batons in their hands. It was said that Mr. Xi had not eaten anything for seven days. To keep from giving them any information on other practitioners, he bit his own tongue and blood filled his mouth. He was extremely skinny, with his cheekbones protruding and his eyes sunken. Chen Jianzhan could barely recognize him.
On May 20, director Ma and officer Lu Yun tricked Mr. Chen by telling him that he would be released in the afternoon. However, at 6 p.m., they suddenly changed their tone: “Let you go? Now the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] is much merciful than before. In the past, you would have been sentenced to death. Eighteen years in prison would not have been long enough.” Then they kicked Mr. Chen outside of the gate of detention station.
Right then, director Liu from the detention center attacked him with big pincers. He cursed, pulling off all the buttons on Mr. Chen's shirt and pants. He took his shoes, then kicked Mr. Chen's behind and pushed him back to the detention station. He was then detained in Cell No. 8.
In the detention station, Mr. Chen was brutally tortured. He was not allowed family visits. He was pressured to write statements giving up the Falun Gong practice. He was ordered to recite the prison rules. He was told to write a “thought report” each week, which would be “evaluated.” If his report did not pass the authorities' “evaluation,” he would be placed in handcuffs or physically abused. Since the food provided to the detainees contained little fat, most of detainees had constipation. Sometimes their anus bled. However, Mr. Chen was only allowed five minutes in the bathroom each time. Once the time was up, he would be taken back to the cell.
Mr. Chen was constantly abused by a teenage detainee called Lu Jianxin. Lu poured water into his shoes and dining bowl. Lu also forced Mr. Chen to squat, then urinated on his head.
Mr. Chen was interrogated for about ten days. On June 1, when Mr. Chen was interrogated, his wife held their four-year-old daughter up to the window of the interrogation room so she could see him. Seeing his child, Mr. Chen knew that he could not cry out and must be strong. When Mr. Chen was on his way from the interrogation room back to the cell, the little girl tried to pass a candy to her father. A policeman yelled at her. The little girl threw the candy away, crying and running back into her mother's arms. Her mother also cried.
To find “evidence,” police officer Li Guomin called everyone in the village to Mr. Chen's home. The police collected everything in the house, then searched for “evidence.” The villagers told them: “This man respects his parents very much. We have never heard him doing anything bad!” Li Guomin read the cultivation diary written by Mr. Chen. All the writings were about how to be a better person. But even this did not stir Li's conscience. He even yelled at Mr. Chen: “I have studied your diary for three days and nights. It is your mind that is so dangerous to the CCP!”
Mr. Chen was tortured until he was dying. They kept him alive with infusions. The police ordered his family to transfer money to the detention station for his medical treatment. Mr. Chen's family took money to the police department, but insisted on seeing Mr. Chen himself first before handing over the cash since they did not know if he was still alive. The police did not want them to see Mr. Chen, so the director let Mr. Chen write a note to give his family.
For four months he struggled between life and death. Finally, the police did not want to be held responsible if he died, so they ordered two policemen to take him home and monitor his medical treatment at home.
In April 2005, five Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced by the Zhenyuan County Court to prison terms. Mr. Xi Haoxue and Mr. Chen Jianzhan (who had escaped to avoid the persecution) were both sentenced to seven years in prison. Tian Runhai, Duan Weijun, and Xu Huixian were sentenced to four, three, and one-year terms in prison, respectively. Ms. Qiang Weixiu was sentenced to two years and nine months of forced labor, which was the third time that she was taken to a labor camp. Zhang Xuxia was sentenced to two years of forced labor.
Related article: Dafa Practitioner Chen Jianzhan from Gansu Province Forced Into Three Years of Homelessness by Persecution