(Minghui.org) Mr. Huang Guodong, a Falun Gong practitioner in Heilongjiang Province, died on October 31, 2017. Several months before his death, because of the physical and mental abuse he endured while he was detained, he had difficulty eating and going to the restroom.

Mr. Huang was first held in Nanshan Police Station and then in Mudanjiang Prison. Because of his belief in Falun Gong, he was tortured in both places. In the police station, the guards hung him up by his thumbs and beat him. After he passed out from the pain, they scraped his ribs with coins and stabbed toothpicks into his fingertips to wake him up. As soon as he regained consciousness, the torture began again.

Mr. Huang's plight was not unique. Many other practitioners also suffered tremendously in this police station for practicing Falun Gong, including Ms. Gao Bingrong and Mr. Cui Cunyi, who both lost their lives due to the physical and mental abuse. Other practitioners, such as Mr. Zhao Jun, were disabled.

Ms. Gao Bingrong: Tortured to Mental Disorder and Death

Ms. Gao lived in Tielinghe Town, where Nanshan Police Station is located. The practice of Falun Gong improved her health and her family life. In February 2001, Miao Qiang, assistant director of Nanshan Police Station, and several other officers arrested her.

Six male officers beat Ms. Gao from 7 p.m. to 1:30 a.m the next day. At the same time, Miao forced Ms. Gao to curse the founder of Falun Gong and to stomp on and tear apart Falun Gong books. Instead of having Ms. Gao's bruises and injuries treated, officials took her to the Mudanjiang Detention Center.

By the time she was admitted to the detention center, Ms. Gao was already crippled, with swelling in her face and limbs. Her eyes were barely two narrow slits, and there were several egg-sized lumps on her head. She was also mentally disordered: she kept crying and cowering as if to avoid being hit. Guards and inmates had to hold her down whenever this happened. She got worse day by day and died about a year after she was released.

Mr. Cui Cunyi: Five Ribs Broken, Entire Lung Black

Because of persecution of Falun Gong, 54-year-old Mr. Cui Cunyi was forced to stay away from home. “Tell him to come back and he will be just fine,” said one local police officer to his family. Shortly after Mr. Cui returned, the police arrested him on May 13, 2002, and took him to Nanshan Police Station. Two days later, his family was notified of his death.

Mr. Cui Cunyi from Mudanjiang City, 54, died within two days of his arrest and detention in Nanshan Police Station.

Mr. Cui had bruises all over his body, five broken ribs, an entirely black lung, swollen eyes, and black legs. But the results of his postmortem exam were not handed over to his family, nor were they allowed to take picture or videos, either of the body or the exam results.

When they planned to appeal to the Heilongjiang provincial government, the police barred them from all public transport to stop them. After constant demands from his family members and their appeals to the provincial government and Beijing, Mudanjiang Police Department paid the family 500,000 yuan.

Because of cases like Mr. Cui's, The United Nations Human Rights Organization included the Nanshan Police Station in one of its Violation of Human Rights Reports in 2005 and issued a statement requesting co-inspection. But no officials have been held responsible.

Mr. Zhao Jun: Toothpicks Stabbed into Fingertips and Disability

Officers at Nanshan Police Station often stabbed practitioners' fingertips with toothpicks. Xie Chunsheng, director of the police station, and Miao went to Mr. Zhao Jun's home on February 24, 2001. Xie asked Mr. Zhao to come out for a chat. As soon as Mr. Zhao stepped out of the door while still in sandals, officers forced him into a police van and took him to the police station.

That evening, Mr. Zhao was tied up tightly three times and he passed out due to the pain three times. Guards then scraped his ribs with coins and stabbed toothpicks into his fingertips to wake him up. His arms were so severely damaged that a medical exam confirmed disability caused by nerve damage.

Torture re-enactment: Inserting toothpicks into fingertips

Seeing that was not enough to make Mr. Zhao give in, officers arrested his son Zhao Dan, a medical school student who did not practice Falun Gong. They handcuffed Zhao Dan to heating pipes and covered his head with thick blankets, almost suffocating him. They also deprived him of access to water or a toilet.

The next morning, two officers took Zhao Dan to Mr. Zhao and yelled, “Hey! Take a look at your son!” They then took Zhao Dan away immediately. Thinking how he himself had already been beaten to disability in just one night, Mr. Zhao was worried his son would also be tortured to disability. In anger and grief, he replied, “Release my son and I will admit to anything you charge me with.” The police extorted 5,000 yuan from the family and released Zhao Dan.

Mr. Huang Guodong: Blood All Over the Room

Mr. Huang worked in a factory, where his hard work and generosity in helping others earned him the respect of his coworkers and neighbors. He was also intelligent and won fourth place in the city-wide chess competition. The practice of Falun Gong made him more open-minded and healthy. “Falun Gong and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are the best. I cannot live without them,” he once said.

Because he was reported for distributing information to expose the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Huang and his son were arrested in late February 2001 and taken to the Nanshan Police Station.

Miao Qiang and other officers tied his thumbs together, hung him up by his thumbs, and beat him. After he lost consciousness, they scraped his ribs with coins and stabbed toothpicks into his fingertips to wake him up—just like what they did to Mr. Zhao—followed by further torture. Mr. Huang screamed from the pain. But the torture continued for 24 hours. His head was swollen and he had bruises all over. He also lost control of his bowels. There was blood all over the room.

But that was just the beginning. Handcuffing him and chaining his feet, officers kept him a detention center, where Miao and other officers continued to beat him. Mr. Huang's wife contacted the 610 Office and the police station asking for his release. But the request was denied and police in turn asked her for money.

In addition to physical abuse, officers also plotted ways to force him to give up his belief. One inmate who worked in the dining hall said they were told to add unknown drugs to Mr. Huang's food so that he had constant diarrhea. The guards then asked Mr. Huang—who did not know the plot then—why the Falun Gong exercises did not improve his health, thinking to shake his belief.

Physical abuse and unknown drugs left him emaciated and in very poor health in about 10 months. His case was included in the 2001 United Nations Human Rights Report. Instead of being released, however, Mr. Huang was tried on December 12, 2001. He was too weak to speak in court but was nonetheless sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was sent to Mudanjiang Prison, where he suffered from exposure to the cold, starvation, electric baton shocking of his private parts and anus, among other types of torture.

Overview

The methods of torture used in Nanshan Police Station and similar places are beyond description. They include: shocking with high-voltage electric batons, water-boarding, being doused with cold water in the freezing winter, beatings, the iron chair, hitting the head against a wall, forced feeding, suffocation, bending the fingers, standing motionlessly for a long time, rape, sexual abuse, no access to a toilet, and many others.

Besides the cases above, many other practitioners also suffered from these abuses. Mr. Zhang Yuliang was beaten by Miao in 2001. His internal organs were damaged and there was blood in his urine for a long time. Nonetheless, he was sentenced to five years in prison. After his relatives in Canada raised his case to the Canadian government, Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs John Baird wrote back, saying he had been working closely with then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper to contact the Chinese government to release detained Falun Gong practitioners.

Related Reports:

Heilongjiang Man Dies After Decade Long Imprisonment

Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Expresses Concerns Over Practitioners Detained in China