Mr. Song Xu, resident of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province

On February 3, 2001, Mr. Song, who had been forced to leave home and move from place to place in order to avoid arrest, was traced and kidnapped by plainclothes police from the Jinshui Police Station. He was sent to the Baimiao Labor Camp of Zhengzhou City the next day and sentenced to three years of forced labor. Mr. Song immediately went on a hunger strike (which lasted more than five months) to protest his detention in the labor camp. On August 9, 2001, after Mr. Song ended the hunger strike, the guards tied ropes tightly around his hands and feet and fixed each of the ropes to a metal bed, then inserted socks into his mouth. By pulling down the metal bed, they made him hang in mid-air for as long as nine hours. His feet were swollen, and the rope cut deeply into his flesh. His feet were so swollen that it was later impossible to untie the rope and the perpetrators had to use scissors to cut it. The team leader even twisted his ankle very hard, which caused Mr. Song great pain. Mr. Song's feet were numb injured from the rope. He could not move one of his legs. Still, guards hit and kicked him every day. Guards even pulled out his pubic hairs one by one. Once, team leader Pan poured salt and chili powder into Mr. Song's nose to torture him. During that period of time, Mr. Song could not relieve himself. When he needed to relieve himself in the winter, with a temperature of only five degrees Fahrenheit, the guards took off all his clothes and put him onto the concrete floor of the washroom. After he finished, the guards used a wooden stick and harshly stabbed it into his rectum, then used a hose to douse him with water.

After his release in November 2002, Mr. Song was arrested again and taken to the Jinshui Police Station because he refused to give up Falun Gong. In the police station, he was not allowed to eat or sleep for the first few days. Then he was hung up upside down, while policemen took turns beating him. Mr. Song then went on another hunger strike for more than five months to protest the torture.

In late May 2003, the Jinshui District Court in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province secretly sentenced Mr. Song to eleven years in prison. As the sentences were illegal, his family did not receive any sentencing notices from the court. Mr. Song was then sent to a jail in Zhengzhou City. He has been on hunger strike in this jail for more than 80 days. Now his muscles are atrophying. He is so emaciated that he looks like he only has skin left. Every day he can only lie on the floor of the cell, as his legs can no longer move. The jail doctor sometimes force-feeds him with soymilk or salt water. His life is in danger. We are extremely concerned about Mr. Song’s situation and hereby request an urgent action by the United Nations to safeguard his life.

type=Case,Torture; type=Labor Camp, ; type=Baimiao Labor Camp of Zhengzhou City; location=Henan, Zhengzhou