(Minghui.org) Mr. Shi Chunde has filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, under which he was tortured to disability and his family was placed under close surveillance.
Mr. Shi, 63, was held in a forced labor camp twice and detained multiple times between 2000 and 2005, for a total of five years. When he was not under detention, he was made a prisoner in his own home, where the authorities regularly “visited” his home and harassed his family for days at a time.
Mr. Shi was subjected to severe torture, beatings, forced-feeding, and brainwashing in the labor camps.
In Chaoyang City Labor Camp in 2001, Mr. Shi was forced to sit on a metal stool specially designed for physical punishment for over 14 hours a day, for more than two weeks. As a result, he could barely walk, and developed a herniated disc, rheumatism, arthritis, and hypertension. He never fully recovered from the effects of the torture.
Mr. Shi was sent to Huludao City Forced Labor Camp on a three-year term in December 2003. He wrote an appeal letter, but it was taken away by guards. He went on hunger strike to protest the abuse in July 2004, and was force-fed and tortured.
Mr. Shi was deprived of sleep and beaten by eight to nine inmates under the prison guards' orders. Inmates who refused to obey were also beaten by guards, and those who carried out the order had their prison terms reduced.
On August 25, 2004, 40 days into the hunger strike, Mr. Shi was emaciated and could hardly walk. He was beaten by three guards and shocked with two electric batons. It felt like “ten thousand knives in my body,” Mr. Shi later recalled.
The guards refused to take him for medical treatment until his family spent several hundred yuan for his exam. His diagnoses included “severe high blood pressure, cerebral vascular insufficiency, deteriorated vision, deafness, etc.” He was disfigured and had lost 30 kg (66 pounds).
Mr. Shi was released on medical parole on September 8, 2005. However, the damage had been done: his entire lower body was numb and painful, and he lost the ability to work, as well as sexual function.
On April 24, 2014, Mr. Shi was on his way to lodge an appeal when village cadres on motorbikes ordered him to return home immediately. He refused their demands and went into town.
Before he had finished his business, he received more than ten calls urging him to go home. The village head, police, and officers from the comprehensive management office – over ten people – had surrounded his home and threatened his family. Other officials transported him back, put him under house arrest, and monitored his home and phone line for the next four days.
The agents monitoring him said, “This is an order from the 610 Office. We just follow orders and make a living.” However, Mr. Shi says such illegal surveillance had been going on for more than 15 years.
The agents harassed Mr. Shi and his family five times a month. Based on an average duration of five days each time, the illegal surveillance would sum up to 300 days. In total, several hundred people and over one hundred police vehicles have been to his home.
“I live like a prisoner in my own home,” reflected Mr. Shi.
Mr. Shi's mother, who was in her 90s, became extremely afraid of police and strangers, and panicked at the sound of cars. The repeated arrests of her son and grandson caused her severe mental trauma. She wept frequently often got up at night and prayed for help. She fell once and became paralyzed for nearly six years. She tried to commit suicide multiple times, but fortunately was stopped by concerned neighbors. She passed away last year.
Mr. Shi's wife had just returned from the hospital on April 24, diagnosed with several illnesses. Facing threats from so many people, she was hospitalized again the next day.
After so many years of persecution, she often feels desperate and helpless. She says that she has considered becoming a nun or ending her life, but could not leave her children.
Mr. Shi's children's careers and marriages have also been affected. On their job applications, they are required to state that they do not practice Falun Gong. Because of the brainwashing by the Chinese Communist Party, potential partners also shy away from them, avoiding any connection with “a Falun Gong family.”
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
Related reports:Practitioner Mr. Shi Chunde Lost the Ability to Take Care of Himself as a Result of PersecutionDafa Practitioner Shi Chunde Disabled from Torture in Huludao City Labor Camp, Liaoning Province