(Minghui.org) Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the authorities in Heilongjiang Province have actively followed the communist regime in torturing the practitioners in order to force them to renounce their faith.

One of the torture facilities is the Hulan Prison, which is designated for those sentenced to heavy terms and death row inmates. A total of 17 torture deaths have been recorded since 1999. Except for three practitioners in their 70s and one practitioner whose age is unknown, most of the practitioners were still in their primes when they died.

The 17 deceased practitioners (age in parentheses) were: Mr. Bian Fusheng (70), Mr. Feng Xue (47), Mr. Guo Xingwang (around 40), Mr. Ji Baoshan (39), Mr. Kong Lingjin (65), Mr. Liu Fucai (55), Mr. Luo Jingshan (65), Mr. Lu Shubin (56), Mr. Qian Houmin (60), Mr. Sun Shaomin (54), Mr. Wang Dechen (50), Mr. Wang Fengchen (age unknown), Mr. Yu Liangbin (76), Mr. Zhang Yaoming (59), Mr. Zhao Chengxiao (76), Mr. Li Min (52) and Mr. Ge Zhenhua (67).

Two Latest Torture Death Cases

67-year-old Man Dies in Prison While Serving Seven Years

Mr. Ge Zhenhua of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, died in prison on October 22, 2022. He was 67.

Mr. Ge was arrested on June 20, 2016, for putting up banners about Falun Gong and distributing informational materials. The Shangzhi City Court sentenced him to 12 years with a 50,000-yuan fine on December 2, 2016. He appealed with the Shangzhi City Intermediate Court, which upheld his conviction but reduced his prison term to seven years with a 30,000-yuan fine.

Since the pandemic broke out in 2020, the authorities in Hulan Prison have ordered strict management of incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners. They force the practitioners to sit on small stools all day long and deny them family visits. The prison authorities pressure the practitioners to renounce their faith. Those who refuse to comply are brutally tortured.

Mr. Ge’s family was informed by the prison around early October 2022 that he’d suffered a stroke and was in the hospital. The prison ordered the family to pay his medical costs, which was over 10,000 yuan a day. The family couldn’t afford to pay and the prison forced them to sign a consent to stop the treatment. Mr. Ge passed away on October 22.

52-year-old Man Dies Four Years After Serving Second Prison Term

Having endured over ten years of prison torture for practicing Falun Gong, Mr. Li Min, of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, succumbed to the mental and physical distress and passed away on July 6, 2022. He was 52 years old.

Since the onset of the persecution, Mr. Li was given one year of forced labor and sentenced twice to 5 and 5.5 years, respectively. He lost all of his teeth due to savage beatings after being arrested in October 2000 for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing.

At the Hulan Prison, an inmate once covered Mr. Li’s head with a plastic bag and inserted two burning cigarettes into his nose. He almost suffocated. Then the inmates rubbed their fists back and forth against his chest and ribs, while stomping on his arms to prevent him from moving.

When the inmates became exhausted fifteen minutes later, they forced Mr. Li to bend over and place his hands and head against the wall. They called the torture “flying an airplane.”

Torture illustration: “Flying an airplane”

They stuffed Mr. Li under the bed at night. His back almost broke. The next morning, guard Li Ji hit him more than ten times with a PVC pipe and forced him to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong.

Torture illustration: Stuffed under a bed

Recent Torture Cases

Former Prison Guard Savagely Beaten While Jailed, Spleen Ruptured and Removed

Mr. Dai Qihong, a former prison guard himself, suffered a ruptured spleen after being beaten by the inmates, while serving five years in the Hulan Prison.

Since the pandemic broke out in 2020, the prison authorities ordered even stricter management of incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners. Many were forced to sit on small stools all day long and not allowed to move. Those who refused to renounce Falun Gong were held in solitary confinement and denied family visits.

Mr. Dai refused to do the night shift keeping watch on September 29, 2022, and was beaten by the inmates. He suffered severe abdominal pain and became incontinent. Around midnight, the inmates dragged him out of bed, kicked his chest and abdomen, and whipped him with a shoe.

The next day, Mr. Dai struggled with intensified abdominal pain. His face was pale and he went into shock. The guards took him to the hospital and the doctor found he was in hemorrhagic shock due to a ruptured spleen. As the damage in his spleen was beyond recovery, the doctor performed a procedure to remove it. Mr. Dai was taken back to the prison on October 8.

Former Orthopedic Surgeon Subjected to Relentless Beating and Electric Shocks

Mr. Li Lizhuang, a 49-year-old former orthopedic surgeon in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province was transferred to Hulan Prison in February 2022 to serve a ten-year term for practicing Falun Gong. For the first three months there he was subjected to constant beatings, electric shocks, and sleep deprivation, among many other forms of torture.

Mr. Li Lizhuang

Mr. Li was assigned to the training ward when he was taken to the Hulan Prison on February 17, 2022. The inmates shocked him with electric batons, mostly on his sensitive parts, including head, neck, chest, hands, knees, and private parts. They also sprayed spicy water onto his private parts, inner thighs, buttocks, anus, face, and eyes. Mr. Li shed several layers of skin due to the torture.

As Mr. Li remained firm in Falun Gong, the guards ordered the inmates to deprive him of sleep. As he became extremely sleepy and couldn’t keep his eyes open, the inmates stabbed his fingers and toes. Mr. Li woke up the next morning to find many bruises on his body.

Inmate Chen Mingfei asked Mr. Li if he knew how to do plaza dancing. Mr. Li said he didn’t. Then Chen ordered him to stand in the water and shocked him with electric batons. As Mr. Li kept jumping due to the shocks, Chen burst into laughter. They repeated the torture in the afternoon and evening.

In addition to the electric shocks and sleep deprivation, they also either rationed his food or forced him to eat excessive amounts of food several meals in a row. Sometimes the inmates spit phlegm, chewed peanuts, or melon seeds onto his face to humiliate him.

On another occasion, the inmates dragged Mr. Li of the ground and hit him on the head with their shoes. He had blurred vision in his left eye for two weeks. An inmate also stuffed his stinky socks into Mr. Li’s mouth and he almost suffocated.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Wei Yuchuan (魏玉川), head of Hulan Prison: +86-451-57307220, +86-451-57307220Deng Xiaogeng (邓晓更), deputy head of Hulan PrisonLi Jingchao (李晶超), political instructor, Hulan Prison

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related reports:

67-year-old Man Dies in Prison While Serving Seven Years for His Faith

Heilongjiang Man Dies Four Years After Serving Second Prison Term for His Faith

Former Prison Guard Savagely Beaten While Jailed for Practicing Falun Gong, Spleen Ruptured and Removed

Former Orthopedic Surgeon Subjected to Relentless Beating and Electric Shocks while Serving Ten Years for His Faith