At around 9 a.m. on January 15, 2004, Mr. Zhang was practicing the Falun Gong exercises in his jail cell. Deputy Chief Li Fangjie and a few other guards fiercely beat him on the head and kicked him. He lost consciousness and fell to the floor. They then used needles to pierce his head and hands, but he did not regain consciousness. Afterwards, they started kicking Mr. Zhang in the stomach and lower back, and ordered two criminal inmates to lift him up. At that point, many other people walked by, so Li Fangjie and the others lied in order to defend their actions, saying, "He was doing the exercises, so I reprimanded him a couple times, and then he decided to lie down on the floor."

Afterwards, Mr. Zhang was moved to the No. 6 division, where could not hold down any food. He vomited blood and vomited whatever he ate. On April 8, 2004, staff of Daqing City’s No. 4 Hospital diagnosed him as suffering from traumatic stomach malfunction; the peristalsis system in his stomach was no longer functioning. In addition, his lower limbs were out of commission and he suffered from failure of multiple organs. His heart beat intermittently, and his blood pressure remained very low. He was sent to the emergency room several times, and was considered critically ill. Doctors at the No. 4 Hospital said that he was dying and listed him in their death count. Even so, the prison refused to release him. For a long time, Mr. Zhang’s life was maintained by intravenous injections and oxygen inhalation. Mr. Zhang, a healthy young man who weighed over 70 kg, was reduced to a skeleton. In a period of more than six months, Mr. Zhang had only four defecations; he had no perspiration and his urination consisted of only a few drops of blood. The doctors are astonished at his condition. Many inmates are shocked when they see him; they say that they have never seen a person so skinny, as if he were only a skeleton. One person observed that even if a wolf saw Mr. Zhang it would be in tears. Still, the persecutors have refused to release him. 

Finally, on the afternoon of July 23, after Mr. Zhang had been on oxygen inhalation with a high fever and had been unconscious for three days, the prison released him. Mr. Zhang’s father was deeply grieved. He had no money and could not borrow any. He went to his employer, a state-run factory, to borrow money, but the factory heads would not lend him any. When he tried to take his son to a larger city for hospitalization, the security office at his workplace stopped him and did not allow them to leave Daqing City. At present, we know no further details of Mr. Zhang’s life-or-death situation, nor do we know whether Mr. Zhang’s father can get medical treatment for him to save his life.

We are very concerned about Mr. Zhang’s life and hereby request an urgent action by the United Nations to safeguard the life of Mr. Zhang.

Victim:

Mr. Zhang Zhong, a resident of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province

Location:

Daqing City Hongweixing Prison, Heilongjiang Province

Perpetrators:

1.      Li Fangjie, Deputy Chief of No. 3 division of the Daqing City Hongweixing Prison, Heilongjiang Province

2.      Tang Tongfu, Chief of Daqing City Hongweixing Prison, Heilongjiang Province