Mr. Qu Dehong, 41 years old, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Yongan Town, Jidong County, Heilongjiang Province. On October 28, 1999, Mr. Qu and his wife, Ms. Zhang Yongli, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner, attended the press conference in Beijing to disclose the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They were both arrested shortly afterwards. Mr. Qu was sentenced to three years and six months of imprisonment in the Third Jail of Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province. Ms. Zhang was sentenced to one year of forced labor and was detained in the Qiaozhuang Detention Center in Tongzhou District of Beijing City. Mr. Qu was released in 2003.

On October 23, 2004, Mr. Qu, with eight other Falun Gong practitioners, went to Mashan District in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province to distribute materials about the persecution of Falun Gong and they were reported. Around 7:00 p.m. on October 27, 2004, ten policemen from the state security team of Jidong County Police Department and two policemen from the police station of Yongan Town broke into Mr. Qu’s home and ransacked the place. They confiscated many valuable items and then arrested Mr. Qu and his wife. That night, the police brought Mr. Qu to the fifth floor of the state security team building and tortured him in various ways. They put soapy water into his eyes and spicy oil into his nose, and poured water into both of his ears. They burned his hand with cigarette butts. They whipped him with a leather whip and beat his feet with white plastic pipes filled with lead and concrete. Mr. Qu refused to cooperate with them. Finally, the policemen force-fed him with a nerve-damaging drug; he became mentally unstable afterwards. He could not recall what had happened to him. When his family visited him, they found that he appeared to be mentally disabled. After his family left, Mr. Qu was tortured for 21 hours.

The police then sent him to the county detention center, where he was again force-fed with a nerve-damaging drug. On May 15, 2005, Mr. Qu started a hunger strike with five other practitioners to protest the illegal imprisonment, which lasted nine days. During the strike, the guards beat the practitioners with plastic pipes filled with lead and concrete to force them to eat. On June 22, 2005, Mr. Qu started a second hunger strike. His life has been in great danger since July 3, 2005, when he was sent to a hospital in Jixi City for emergency treatment. At the hospital, the guards tied his hands and poured spicy oil into his mouth to force him to take food. After 20 days, they took him back to the detention center.

On July 19, 2005, Mr. Qu’s wife and other relatives went to the political and judiciary committee of Jidong County, asking for his release, but their request was rejected. Mr. Qu is now in very serious condition. He has become just skin and bones; his skin is dry and yellow, and he cannot raise his arms or move.

Type=Case,Torture;Type=Case,Freedom of Expression;Type=Prison,Third Jail of Harbin City;Type=Detention Center,Qiaozhuang Detention Center; Location=Heilongjiang, Harbin; Location=Beijing; Location=Heilongjiang, Jixi