(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Xiong Wende from Yingcheng City, Hubei Province, was persecuted many times while in prison and in a mental hospital over the past few years.

Mr. Xiong, 40, lived in Xiongwan, Dongmafang, Yingcheng City, and worked in the 728^th Salt Plant within the district. His wife, Du Zuying, worked in the Shuanghuan Company in Hubei Province. She was fired for her faith in Falun Gong. The couple are both practitioners and follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that Falun Gong promotes.

Xiong Wende was weak from a young age. He started to practice Falun Gong at the end of 1995. Before that, he felt pains in his liver daily. His spirit was low and he was very worried. After he practiced for a month, his health totally improved. He was very grateful to Falun Gong for giving him back a healthy body. He felt fortunate and cherished his predestined relationship with the practice.

On July 20, 1999, the CCP utilized the media to slander Falun Gong, declaring the practice illegal. Xiong Wende hoped the government would eventually decide to stop persecuting Falun Gong, so he went to Beijing to appeal and clarify the truth. After he came back, he was arrested and taken to the No. 2 Detention Center in Yingcheng City. Later, he was transferred to the No.1 Detention Center in Yingcheng City.

After three months in detention, the Communist Party court in Yingcheng City illegally sentenced Mr. Xiong to prison for three years. They did not notify his family when he went on trial, and there was nobody in the public gallery at all. The judge just asked him when he began the practice of Falun Gong. The judge also asked him when he went to Beijing to appeal, and with whom, and then it was over.

In prison, a political commissar named Pan and the head of the Prison Politics Section designated guards to persecute Xiong Wende. They forced him to do the work of several people. After that, they forced him to stand until midnight. After 20 days, his weight decreased significantly.

After a month, because the guards had not succeed in brainwashing Mr. Xiong, they forced him to work in the cave workshop. It was summer, it was very hot, and there was a lack of oxygen in the cave workshop. The criminal inmates were separated into three groups that changed shifts every half an hour. Nobody could work long hours in the cave workshop. After they got out, they were dehydrated and dangerously overheated. The inmate in charge only allowed them to drink very little water. Xiong Wende worked inside the cave workshop for as long as six hours at a time but still was insulted and beaten without reason. Finally, he was so tired that the bricks fell and damaged his ankle. His wounds took six months to heal.

In July 2007, Xiong Wende was arrested by officers from Langjun Police Station while he was out telling people about Falun Gong. He was detained in the No.2 Detention Center in Yingcheng City. He was finally released after a seven-day hunger strike.

In October 2007, supervisor Yang Yingwei from the Dongmafang Police Station, together with Xiao Changbin, Zheng Jun, Xiong Zhou, Xiong Dehua, and Wang Sitian from the 728^th Salt Plant, arrested Xiong Wende. They took him to the Tangxunhu Brainwashing Center in Wuhan City. Because Mr. Xiong refused to sell out his fellow practitioners, a director named Gong got very angry, grabbed Mr. Xiong's collar, and pulled him off his chair. He slapped him with both hands. After a hour, Gong's palm prints were all over Xiong Wende's face.

In July 2008, Zuo Yong'an from the Yingcheng Public Security Team and two young policemen took a locksmith to pick the lock on Xiong Wende's home. For about two hours they searched all over, confiscating many of his private belongings. Mr. Xiong was then arrested by the Public Security Bureau of Yingcheng City. He escaped after two days and is still unable to go home.