Victim:

Mr. Yang Baochun, male, 40, resident of Handan City, Hebei Province

 

Description

Mr. Yang began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. In August 1999, he went to Beijing to appeal to the Government to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. As a result, he was sentenced to two years of forced labor and detained in Handan Labor Camp, where he was beaten with rubber batons and shocked with electric batons.

During the coldest days of 2000, Mr. Yang was forced to stand on the snowy ground without shoes and jacket. After suffering frostbite in his feet, they put his feet into hot water, although it is common knowledge that hot water should not be used to treat frozen flesh. The injury worsened. He was taken to the hospital suffering severe frostbite. The doctor decided that his leg had to be amputated or he would die within 72 hours. As a result, Mr. Yang lost his right leg. Only then was his wife allowed to see him. At that time, he was skin and bones and could barely sit up.

Less than one week after the surgery, Mr. Yang was transferred to Ankang Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Handan City, for further torture. He was given unknown drugs which caused uncontrollable salivation, a numb tongue and drowsiness. He was also shocked with an electric baton and beaten. In 2004, Mr. Yang was released due to his wife's continued efforts

Even though Mr. Yang was released, people stationed outside his apartment monitored him around the clock. He went to the Petition Office to file a complaint about the torture he suffered at the labor camp. This upset the factory authorities.

Mr. Yang continued with his efforts to seek justice. He went to the Association for the Disabled and the Petition Office in Beijing and told them his story. While waiting the result of his appeal, he has to live on the streets for six months in Beijing. Someone found him writing "Falun Dafa is good" and reported him to the police, so he was once again arrested and taken back to Handan City. The factory authorities did not know what to do with him because of the Lunar New Year holiday, so they put him in the psychiatric hospital temporarily. However, two years were past, he was still detained there.

At the psychiatric hospital, Mr. Yang has been tortured, starved, shocked with electric batons, and beaten. They also broke his cane, making it difficult for him to get around.

Ms. Yang has asked the authorities over and over again how her husband could be imprisoned for eight years without any legal procedures having been followed? Local officials claimed that it was on orders from higher up and that they could not risk losing their jobs because they released him.  

Posted on June 22, 2008