Mr. Zhang’s pictures of before (left) and after (right) the torture

Mr. Zhang Xiaohong, male, 29, a resident of Tianshenqiao Village, Nanbu County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province.

In October 1999, Mr. Zhang went to the Chinese Central Office of Appeals in Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, instead of listening his appeal, the authorities arrested him. After being escorted back home, he was held for 36 days and fined 4,000 Yuan[1].

Late one night in January 2000, a group of police officers broke into Mr. Zhang’s home and arrested him. Several police officers knocked him down to the floor, punched and kicked him, and then sent him to Nanbu County Detention Center. During his detention,  he was hit 30 times with a heavy club for doing Falun Gong exercises which caused his gluteus muscles to become extremely bruised and swollen. He was also shackled. Later, he was sentenced to one year in the Mianyang Xinhua Forced Labor camp.

In the labor camp, Mr. Zhang protested by going on a hunger strike and refusing to do the hard labor. Police officers force-fed him and dragged him to work, which caused the wounds on his legs and feet to become badly infected. He was later released in November 2000.

In September 2001, while Mr. Zhang was explaining the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong to other passengers on a train, he was arrested and sent to the Chongqing Railway Station Police Station. Later he was escorted back to Nanbu County by police officers. His personal items and money were confiscated and never returned. While in police custody, Mr. Zhang went on a hunger strike for nine days to pretest the arrest, however, he was still illegally sentenced to two years in the Mianyang Xinhua Forced Labor Camp.

One time, when Mr. Zhang refused to cooperate with the irrational requirements of the police, he was bound and hung up for a whole night in a sports field. On another occasion, because he erased from a blackboard some words that defamed the founder of Falun Gong, police officers beat him until nearly every part of his body was bleeding. While being tightly bound with ropes, he passed out. Police officers shocked him on his mouth, neck, shoulders, body, and navel, all at the same time, which severely burned his skin. Also, four people monitored him 24 hours per day. Mr. Zhang’s health quickly deteriorated under such brutal torture. Although he was unable to drink or eat, the police still tried to coerce him into writing a statement renouncing the practice of Falun Gong. When the camp staff realized that he was near death, to avoid taking responsibility for his death, they asked his family to take him home. On May 13, 2003, Mr. Wang was released. Because of the torture, his weight had dropped from over 60 kg to approximately 32 kg. He looked like a skeleton and was almost unable to walk or even talk. He died at 7:00 p.m. on August 4, 2003.

In seeking justice, Mr. Zhang's family carried his body to the local police station. When they saw what was happening, the police officers became enraged, shouted, and beat and arrested people. His family asked for an autopsy to determine the cause of death, but the police took Mr. Zhang's body and had it cremated instead. Mr. Zhang's family members were charged with disturbing the stability of society and detained several times for 10-15 days.