(Minghui.org) Mr. Li Yuzhuan, 77, is a retired art editor from the Jilin Art Museum. He filed a criminal complaint in June 2015 with the Supreme People's Procuratorate against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime.
Since Jiang Zemin launched the campaign to eradicate the peaceful spiritual practice of Falun Gong in 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have been and still are arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned, and even tortured to death.
Mr. Li was imprisoned in four different forced labor camps for a total of four years. He bears witness to the torture that led to the death of practitioners Wang Lixin and Hou Zhanhai. Also, he was viciously beaten and lost his hearing and vision for some time. Even after his release, he was still harassed by local officials.
Below is Mr. Li's personal account of his ordeal.
Beatings and Extortion for Appealing for Justice for Falun Gong
I went to Beijing four times between July 1999 and October 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. I was arrested and beaten twice. I was also taken to Weifang Liaison Office because the persecutors thought I was from Weifang.
When I was detained, a drunk police officer handcuffed me during the second night. He slapped my face and kicked my ankle. I fell to the ground. He pulled me up by my clothes and continued to abuse me until he was tired.
“I am about the same age as your parents,” I told him. “Do you have any human thought left in your mind, especially after beating me like this?” I was released after they extorted 1,000 yuan from me.
Tortured at a Detention Center and Forced Labor Camps
I was arrested on October 25, 2000. Police interrogated me for two days and ransacked my home. They found no Falun Gong informational materials or any other evidence they could use against me. Yet, I was taken to the Jilin No. 3 Detention Center. The detention center was overcrowded and the sanitary conditions were appalling. Many people shared one toothbrush and a wash towel. There was only one toilet in the cell and we were restricted to 3 minutes when using it.
On arrival in the center, I saw practitioner Wang Lixin. He was strong and healthy when police first brought him in. He died from severe beatings and force feeding only a few days later.
I was later transferred to the Huanxiling Forced Labor Camp in Jilin to serve two years' term. There I experienced the March 14 Atrocity in 2001. Around 40 prison guards and staff members holding electric batons, sticks filled with lead pellets, and clubs, viciously beat practitioners who were on a hunger strike. At least 1 practitioner, Huo Zhanhai, died from the injures, 3 were rushed to hospital for rescue, 65 practitioners suffered either a broken leg or arm, and 105 practitioners sustained other injuries.
After the news about the atrocity became known publicly, the labor camp moved the 65 badly injured practitioners to four other labor camps to avoid an investigation. I was transferred to Baiquan Forced Labor Camp in Liaoyuan. Since I wrote an appeal letter about the March 14 atrocity, I was harassed every day. I was threatened and forced to dig ditches in standing water.
One month before my release, I was transferred to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp. When our cell was searched, police found some articles written by the Falun Gong founder inside my pillow case. Three criminal inmates jumped on me and punched my head. I could not hear anything and my eyes were swollen shut for days.
Harassed by Local Authorities
After I was released from the labor camps, the director of the local 610 Office threatened to take me to a brainwashing center if I refused to write a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong. Two days after the 2002 Chinese New Year, I left my home to avoid the arrest. But, police often called my wife and demanded to know my whereabouts.
On my return home in 2008, local police came to my home on numerous occasions. They ransacked my home without presenting a search warrant. They wanted us to move away from their jurisdiction, so they gave our landlord a hard time. As a result, I moved 3 times in one year and suffered various hardships.
I was detained for 15 days for telling people about Falun Gong in spring 2010 and again in 2013. In total, I spent over eight years away from my home because of the persecution.
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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