Name: Liu Chunquan (刘春泉)
Gender: Male
Age: 58
Address: Xiangtan, Hunan
Occupation: Business owner
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wuling Prison (常德武陵监狱)
City: Changde
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, illegal sentencing,
imprisonment, brainwashing, forced labor, brainwashing, beatings,
torture, brainwashing, electric shock, force-fed, home ransacked
(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Liu Chunquan from Xiangtan City, Hunan Province owned a plumbing material store. Due to years of carrying plumbing materials and hard work, Mr. Liu incurred many illnesses. In 1998, he started practicing Falun Gong, following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Before long, all his illnesses disappeared. His business also did better and better.
Mr. Liu has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime for his faith for more than 12 years. In 2002, he was illegally sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. He was not released until February 9, 2012. Below is a summary of the persecution he has suffered.
Illegally sentenced to 10 years in prison
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the leadership of Jiang Zemin began to persecute Falun Gong. In February 2000, Mr. Liu went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice the spiritual discipline. However, he was arrested and taken to the Xiangtan Liaison Office in Beijing, where police officers interrogated and tortured him. After being transported from Beijing to Xiangtan, Mr. Liu was detained at the Xiangtan City Jintangwan Detention Center for 30 days.
In February 2002, police officers from the Domestic Security Division arrested Mr. Liu again for making materials clarifying the facts about Falun Gong. The officers ransacked Mr. Liu's home and confiscated all of his Falun Gong-related books and materials, along with valuable personal belongings such as a computer and a printer.
Mr. Liu and fellow practitioners were subsequently illegally tried in court. They represented themselves and pleaded not guilty with such conviction that the judges dared not to face them directly for sentencing. Later, the local 610 Office colluded with the Police Department and the Domestic Security Division to sentence Mr. Liu to 10 years of imprisonment.
During his 10-year prison term, Mr. Liu was transferred several times. He was first sent to the Changsha Prison in January 2003. In September of the following year, he was transferred to the Yiyang Chishan Prison. Then in March 2005, he was transferred to Ward No. 2 of the Changde Wuling Prison, where he was persecuted until February 9, 2012, when his term came to an end. The CCP officials from the Hunan Province 610 Office and the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Prisons have used the tactic of transfering Falun Gong practitioners to different prisons in their attempts to force practitioners to renounce their belief. These attempts usually fail.
Beaten and brutally tortured
At Ward No. 4 of the Changsha Prison, Mr. Liu insisted that he was not guilty and refused to wear a prison uniform or badge, or count off or squat per guards' orders. As a result, the guards severely beat him and took him to the Strictly Controlled Division, which is used for torture. There, he was handcuffed and hung up from a big metal gate. He lost consciousness from the pain. The guards used various torture methods to physically abuse Mr. Liu and also verbally abused him.
Mr. Liu was also forced to do slave labor from 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. everyday; sometimes he had to work until dawn.
Torture re-enactment: Hung up in the air
In September 2004, Mr. Liu was transferred to the Yiyang Chishan Prison and placed in Ward No. 3 of the First Division. Because he refused to give up practicing Falun Gong, resisted the persecution and refused to do slave labor, he was tied up, hung up and shocked with electric batons. Mr. Liu held a 15-day hunger strike to protest the persecution. However, he was force-fed every day and handcuffed to a “death bed” in a spread-eagle position at night.
Torture re-enactment: Death bed
In March 2005, Mr. Liu was transferred to Ward No. 2 of the Changde Wuling Prison, where he was brutally tortured and persecuted for almost 7 years. In December 2011, three months before his term expired, the persecution escalated and the prison authorities subjected him to intense brainwashing. The guards displayed inhumane and violent behavior in attempts to force him to “transform” and give up practicing Falun Gong. They also pressured his family try to persuade him to give up the practice. However, Mr. Liu stayed steadfast in his belief.
The prison guards and a few of the prisoners then handcuffed and hung him up in a spread-eagle position against a wall, leaving only the tips of his toes touching the ground. Mr. Liu was kept in this position for over a month. He was severely beaten, verbally abused, and constantly tortured, as a result of which his eyesight declined rapidly and he could not see things clearly. He also developed some other serious illnesses from the tortures he endured. On February 9, 2012, Mr. Liu Chunquan finally returned home, plagued with injuries and pain.
