(Minghui.org) Many Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) practitioners have exercised their right to sue former dictator Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong and causing them great harm and tremendous suffering over the past 17 years. More than 200,000 practitioners and their families have filed such lawsuits since May 2015.

Ms. Dong Mei from Shenyang filed a criminal complaint about the years of torture suffered in various detention centers, forced labor camps, and brainwashing centers. Below is an excerpt, in which she details some of the torture and abuse she experienced.

Persecution at Longshan Transformation Center

I was detained for more than one month in November and December 1999.

I suffered various forms of physical torture for doing the Falun Gong exercises. I was forced to squat or stand with both hands up against a wall for long hours. When I failed to keep both arms upright because of fatigue, the guards shocked me with an electric baton.

The guards often took me to their office and forced me to squat with both hands holding my head. They then kicked me and electrocuted me, causing my whole body to convulse.

Torture at Longshan Labor Camp

At the labor camp, the guards encouraged collaborators to torture and try to transform practitioners. When I refused to read slanderous materials and to give up my belief, the collaborators not only beat me, pulled my hair out, and banged my head against the wall, but they also dragged me back and forth over the cement floor, causing severe injury to my ankle.

On one occasion, several guards held me down on the cement floor and twisted my hands behind my back. They then brutally beat me and, at the same time, shouted obscenities into my ears.

Torture re-enactment: Brutal beating

Because of the severe torture, I had acute headaches and constant ringing in the ears, and I would sweat all over uncontrollably. My legs were so painful and I gradually lost feeling in them; I could not walk without assistance for more than two months.

The guards then changed tactics. They forced me to sit on a small bench for very long hours every day. They directed inmates to monitor me and wake me up around 4 a.m.

Some other practitioners and I then went on a hunger strike in protest.

I was handcuffed to a chair. They stepped on a picture of Master Li (the founder of Falun Gong) while force-feeding me through my nose with a tube. When the feeding tube was pulled out, my blood came with it.

They also forced me to step on Master's picture and threatened me, “If you continue on your hunger strike, we will make all the practitioners step on the picture.”

I felt so weak and hardly held on. I passed out on the third day.

In addition to torture, I was also forced to do sweatshop labor. The work lasted more than 10 hours each day and occasionally went past midnight.

In the first year of detention, I had to apply adhesive on PVC boxes for Shengjie Wax Company. The monitoring room, where we worked, was small and crowded with prisoners. Because of a lack of fresh air and the strong odor of the adhesive, I suffered from headaches, swollen skin, irritated eyes and coughing.

In June 2002, I was forced to twine together metal wire, beads, and dried leaves and then apply an adhesive on the crafts. Because of the corrosive chemicals involved, my fingertips turned black and then became broken and infected. It was extremely painful as I twisted the crafts with my broken skin. The pain was unbearable. My joints became numb and my fingers were deformed.

In 2003, I was forced to tear strips of processed dry tofu skin into fine threads. I tore it with my bare hands in the beginning and suffered blisters. Even though tools were provided later, holding them for long hours caused my fingernails to turn black and separate from my flesh.

I was incarcerated at the Longshan Labor Camp starting on August 24, 2001. My term was later extended by three months.

Forced-Feeding at Zhangshi Brainwashing Center

On the day of my scheduled release (October 8, 2003), I was illegally sent to Zhangshi Brainwashing Center for more than two months.

I immediately went on a hunger strike in protest. The inmates started to physically abuse me. One night I exhibited pale lips, shortness of breath, a weak pulse, and extremely low blood pressure. I was close to collapse.

On the fourth day of my hunger strike, the guards held me down in a chair and started brutal force-feeding. They pinched my nose and pried open my mouth with a metal spoon. I was in a world of pain.

Torture re-enactment: Forced-Feeding

Becoming Displaced

I firmly insisted on my belief. After my release, I left my home for years to avoid being arrested. Later, I was denied when I applied for my ID card, making it difficult to become employed.

When I landed a financing job at a hotel in 2006, the police pressured the hotel's general manager to fire me.

Health Benefits from Falun Gong

My mother started practicing Falun Gong in the summer of 1996. Not long after she began cultivation, her many physical problems, including insomnia, neurasthenia, and tuberculosis disappeared.

I soon also became a practitioner. I followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and became more kindhearted, considerate, and honest. The skin disease that had plagued me for 20 years disappeared soon after I took up cultivation.

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 17 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.