Victim:

Mr. Zhang Zhouyu, male, a Falun Gong practitioner from Shouguang City, Shandong Province.

Mr. Zhang Zhaoyu’s bruises, the photos taken several days after the torture.

Location:

Shouguang Town Police Station, Shouguang City, Shandong Province.

Perpetrators:

Police from the Shouguang Town Police Station, Shouguang City, Shandong Province.

Description:

At around 11:00 a.m. on May 23, 2008, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Zhouyu was arrested at the hotel where he was temporarily residing and taken to the local police station in Shouguang City, Shandong Province. Mr. Zhang was detained for a week there.

On the evening of May 25, the police began to beat Mr. Zhang to try to force a "confession" from him. They forced him to sit on the ground with his legs and arms held out straight in front of him. If he could not hold his arms up at an even level, the officers would beat his arms, hands and feet with a rubber stick. After two hours of constant beatings, Mr. Zhang could not sit still. So the police officers forced him to sit on a steel chair with his arms extended out. When he could not keep his arms up, he was mercilessly beaten. This continued until 2:00 a.m. the next morning.

Afterwards, several police officers took turns monitoring Mr. Zhang and kept him from sleeping. At around 5:00 a.m., they began to beat him again. A policeman by the surname of Zhang was the most ruthless. Then they handcuffed Mr. Zhang's wrists and forced him to hold out his arms straight in front of him with a rubber stick in his hand. If his arms lowered a bit, they would beat him again.

The new round of beatings was more painful than the earlier ones. In desperation, Mr. Zhang hit his head on the steel chair to try to resist further tortures. As a result, his forehead bled massively. Still, the police did not stop their torture.

Because of the brutal beatings, Mr Zhang could not walk for almost three days.

Later, he was able to escape from the police station when the two policemen who monitored him had fallen asleep.

Posted on August 31, 2008