(Minghui.org) The year 2001 was especially hard for Mr. Zhang Zhiqiang, who was serving two years of forced labor for refusing to give up his belief in Falun Gong. The Chinese Communist Party intensified its persecution of Falun Gong in May that year, and began a new round of attacks on their practitioner captives.
Mr. Zhang was deprived of sleep, beaten, dangled by his handcuffs and scalded with boiling water. His burn scars from the water are still visible fourteen years later.
Mr. Zhang Zhiqiang was scalded with boiling water in the armpit in May 2001. The scar is still obvious 14 years later, when the picture was taken on June 2015.
Mr. Zhang and his wife, Ms. Chen Qing, have filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong that brought them tremendous suffering and cost them their jobs. Ms. Chen even became mentally challenged at one time due to the relentless persecution. The couple is charging Jiang with crimes against humanity, abuse of power, torture, and genocide.
Husband: Two Years of Labor Camp Detention and Severe Torture
When Mr. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal in September 1999 – two months after the persecution started – police arrested him at Tiananmen Square. He was kept at the Qijiang Detention Center in Chongqing.
While there, officials extorted over 2,000 yuan from his family and forced his employer to fire him.
Mr. Zhang went to Beijing again in December 1999 to appeal. He was detained and forced to work in a sweatshop. Although his father paid thousands of yuan for his release, officials sent him to a forced labor camp one month later because he did not renounce his beliefs.
At the labor camp, he was beaten, put in solitary confinement, and force-fed. When the detention term expired one year later, officials extended his term by another year.
The Xishanping Labor Camp, where Mr. Zhang was kept, intensified their persecution in 2001. A special division was formed to abuse Falun Gong practitioners, and each practitioner would be watched by two to four inmates 24 hours a day.
Though Mr. Zhang survived the torture, fellow practitioner Mr. Li Zetao died on June 2 that year.
Wife: Five Arrests and Untimely Deaths of Both Parents
Ms. Chen, a school teacher, was arrested five times and her home was ransacked five times after the persecution started in 1999.
When she went to Beijing to appeal for the second time in December 2000, officials sent her to one year of labor camp detention, where she was humiliated and tortured while being monitored by inmates 24 hours a day. When the term expired one year later, the county 610 Office kept her at a brainwashing center for nearly three weeks.
Police worked with Ms. Chen's employer and arrested her again in November 2002. Officials detained her for two weeks and her mother was forced to kneel down in front of them, begging for her release. They later forced Ms. Chen to write a warrant guaranteeing that she will not leave town or associate with others.
Tongnan County 610 Office and police arrested Ms. Chen at work in December 2003, and put her in a brainwashing center. Her elderly mother, who was sick and nearly blind as a result of worry from Ms. Chen's previous detention, came to visit and fainted upon seeing her.
One of the police officers, Cai Gang, yelled callously, “Don't die here. Go die in a hospital!”
Ms. Chen went on a hunger strike to protest. But officials continued trying to force her to give up her beliefs through physical torture, humiliation, and extortion. She escaped two weeks later and was forced to stay away from home along with Mr. Zhang.
Traumatized and defeated by these incidents, Ms. Chen's mother was paralyzed in early 2005 and died in October 2006. Fearing for their safety, Ms. Chen and her husband didn't dare to go back home to attend her mother's funeral.
Ms. Chen developed depression and phobias after four years of a destitute life. She and her husband had no choice but to return home in late 2007.
When Ms. Chen's father fell by accident and lost consciousness in January 2013, some bystanders called emergency services. According to eyewitnesses, the police denied him timely medical help.
Ms. Chen's father passed away the same day. The police next ordered an autopsy without the verification of death or family consent.
Ms. Chen found out what happened to her father and went to the local police station to inquire about the cause of the death.
She, however, was told, “No human rights for Falun Gong!”
It became clear to her that the police mistreatment of her father was simply because of her status as a Falun Gong practitioner.
The persecution cost the couple their jobs, their family, and their life as they knew it. Now they are seeking justice.
Background
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.
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