(Minghui.org)
Mr. Huang Weizhong
Huang Weizhong’s wife, Zhang Xiaogeng, died as a result of persecution
Mr. Huang Weizhong, 51, formerly employed at the Jiamusi Youyi Candy Factory, started practicing Falun Gong in 1995. His wife, Zhang Xiaogeng, taught at the school built for factory workers’ children. The police illegally arrested the couple and extorted money from them often after the Communist Party began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. Ms. Zhang eventually passed away, and Mr. Huang was detained four times, sentenced to prison, and held in a forced labor camp where he was brutally tortured. The persecution cost the couple more than 50,000 yuan in material losses as well as Zhang Xiaogeng's life.
Mr. Huang Weizhong’s account of the persecution his wife was subjected to
“My wife was arrested in early May 2002. They took more than 2,000 yuan in cash from her and savagely beat her in the detention center. She was immobilized on the floor with her arms and legs spread out. Later on she was held in a forced labor camp for three years where she was beaten and force-fed and her arms were cross-cuffed behind her back. She was very weak by the time she returned home.
Torture re-enactment: hands cuffed behind the back to a metal bed frame
“My wife weighed about 45 kg [100 lbs.] from a former 65 kg [143 lbs.], she often coughed and was dizzy and nauseous, had difficulty eating and walking. The police came so often to harass us by banging on the door that my neighbor had a heart attack and was afraid to go home. My wife was afraid to turn on the lights when she was home alone and was terrified whenever someone knocked on the door. She continued to lose weight to a mere 30 kg [66 lbs.], and passed away at age 42, about one year after she came home.”
Torture re-enactment: Death Bed
According to a previous report on the Minghui website, Ms. Zhang Xiaogeng was held in the Jiamusi City Detention Center. When she held a hunger strike to protest the persecution, several male inmates restrained her on the floor spread eagle and force-fed her strong brine and corn porridge. She threw up but could not move. She was not released even when she had to relieve herself.
After a month and a half at the detention center she was held in Jiamusi City Forced Labor Camp for three years. In late September 2002 she refused to do slave labor. Two guards -- one named Guo Zhenwei-- brutally beat her for more than 20 minutes. She was severely bruised all over and her buttocks were black and blue. She was bedridden for the next two weeks.
One morning guard Sun Limin ordered Ms. Zhang and another practitioner, Ms. Ma Cuihong, to do slave labor; both refused. Two male guards started beating them and did not stop even when their own hands started shaking from overexertion. Then, guards Sun Limin and Zhang Xiaodan instructed a group of female guards to kick the practitioners with their boots.
A brainwashing session was held at the labor camp on November 1, 2002. When Ms. Zhang refused to participate, guards Li Xiujin and Zhang Xiaodan knocked her down and cross-cuffed her hands behind her back to a metal bed frame. (See photo illustration http://www.minghui.org/mh/article_images/2011-5-2-minghui-persecution-222413-1.jpg ) The metal handcuffs cut into her wrists. She could not feel her hands, which were purple when they were unlocked two hours later. Her hands remained numb for four months, and a bump on her right wrist could be seen at the time of her death.
On May 7, 2003, the 13th day of her hunger strike, she was very fragile. Guard Hong Wei hit her nonstop with a baton for more than two hours and handcuffed her behind her back. Again the handcuffs became embedded in her flesh. She was so weak she hardly had the strength to breathe. This time, it lasted four hours. She was also deprived of sleep, forced to sit on a tiny stool for a long time, and do slave labor.
The Persecution of Mr. Huang Weizhong
Starting in early February 2009, officials from Heilongjiang Province Police Department ordered Jiamusi domestic security officers and police officers to arrest about 20 practitioners, including Huang Weizhong.
Below is Mr. Huang’s account of what happened.
“My wife and I went to Beijing to protest the persecution in October 1999. We were arrested and taken to the liaison office in Beijing, then back to Jiamusi by local police and security officers from the candy factory where we worked. I was held in a detention center for three-and-a-half months; my wife was held in Tangyuan Detention Center for over two months. Officials from the Politics and Security Section at the factory released us after extorting over 6,000 yuan from our family.
“My wife was charged with 'illegal gathering' and arrested in March 2000 when visiting a fellow practitioner’s home and taken to a detention center. Jiamusi 610 Office agent Chen Wanyou extorted 2,000 yuan from my family before releasing her.
“I was arrested by officers from Jiangshang Police Station in Jiamusi in August 2000 for handing out Falun Gong flyers in the street. I was brutally tortured with 'Riding an Airplane' (Re-enactment: http://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2004/9/29/52921.html ) and 'Riding a Motorcycle.' I was held at the detention center for one month and released after they extorted 10,000 yuan from my brother.
“I was arrested on May 17, 2002. Liu Libo, Yonghong Police Department deputy chief, and other officers and ransacked my home, taking more than 2,000 yuan in cash, a cell phone, and other things.
“I was sentenced to three years of forced labor and taken to Xigemu Labor Camp in Jiamusi. The next day, 610 Office agent Chen Wanyou and two officers from Yonghong Police Department removed me from the labor camp and took me to a torture room in another building. They restrained me in a metal chair and asked me who wrote the article published on the Minghui website exposing their crimes. I refused to answer. They hit my head with a bottle.
“In the evening, Liu Libo told the guards to tie my feet to the bottom bedrail and cuff my hands to the top rail, so my upper torso leaned forward, my feet barely touched the ground and my entire body weight fell on my wrists. Liu Libo then shoved me back and forth so that the handcuffs lacerated my wrists. He further told two guards to shake my arms until blood gushed from my wrists. They put me down after about 30 minutes; then they did it again, over and over.
“Another round of attacks was launched in mid October 2002. Each guard was rewarded with 1,000 yuan for 'reforming' one Falun Gong practitioner. They woke us up at 2 a.m. daily and forced us to watch videos that viciously slandered Falun Gong. Then, they called us into another room one by one, where eight guards were waiting to 'reform' us. If we refused, they would lock us onto a bed in solitary confinement and order inmates to further torment and abuse us.
“One day, guard Guo Gang, arranged for several collaborators to try to 'reform' me by not letting me sleep. I coughed and became nauseous. I threw up yellow greenish fluid and had blood in my urine. I often blacked out and crashed headlong to the ground. I could hardly eat. My condition did not improve for more than 20 days, and finally, to avoid my possible death on their hands, they called my family and granted me a medical parole. So I was released after being held at the Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp for ten months.
“Then, upon returning home from work in the evening of February 12, 2009, I saw the door wide open; it was a mess inside. The police had broken into my home and rummaged through everything. They were there when I went in and kicked me to the ground, tying my hands and feet with handcuffs and ropes. They took cash, my mobile phone, and other private belongings from me worth about 20,000 yuan. They dragged me down the stairs; a plainclothes officer punched me right in my eyes, causing temporary loss of sight.
“They took me to the Jiamusi Police Department, shackled me, and handcuffed me behind my back. Several people brought a stack of papers and told me to sign them. I refused. They pinned me down; six people jumped on me; their fists and kicks rained down on me. One officer held me down by putting his knee against my back while forcing my arms upwards from behind. I felt such pain as if my arms were broken.
Torture re-enactment: Half-hanging while hogtied
“They told me two or three times to sign the documents and eventually they pried my fist open and pressed my finger on the paper, forcing me to fingerprint it. Then, one officer hogtied me and put one rope through the handcuff and shackle on me, and he sat on the sofa while pulling the rope back and forth, forcing the handcuffs and shackles to cut deep into my wrists and ankles. My hands were swollen and bloody, and I could hardly breathe. I had numbness in my hands for six months afterwards.
“The next morning they sent me to a detention center. My family went to the Jiaxi Police Station and demanded my release but to no avail. My family hired lawyers Li Xiongbing and Chen Qiangan, who demanded the procuratorate cancel the case.
“I went on a hunger strike in the detention center. They started force-feeding me on the fifth day; eight inmates held me in a chair; the detention center doctor pried my mouth open and inserted a thick tube into my stomach.
Torture re-enactment: Force-feeding
“Later, they changed to feeding through my nose. They took me to a hospital and had a nasogastric tube put in place around the clock. They had inmates watch me to prevent me pulling out the tube.
“Jiamusi Jiaoqu Court illegally tried me on June 30, 2009. One of my two lawyers was denied entry into the courtroom by judge Xiao Chenghai, and only three family members were allowed to sit in on the trial.
“They had to carry me to the court because I was being force-fed and was extremely weak. They didn’t want the public to see the tube in my nose, so they took it out and force-fed me heart medication. Several police officers held me up during the trial. When it was over and everyone left the room, the court clerk and the officials handling my case grabbed my hand and pressed my finger on a fabricated document, knowing I was too weak to fight three people, and I had always refused to sign it. The court notified me on the third day that I had been sentenced to three years in prison.
“I was taken to Jiamusi Prison on July 14, 2009. To achieve an 85% 'reform rate,' prison officials assembled a brainwashing class in February 2011. Three other practitioners died from torture within two weeks.”
Due to the persecution, Mr. Huang Weizhong’s family also endured tremendous financial hardship due to endless episodes of police extortion, as well as emotional stress from constantly worrying about Mr. Huang and his wife. They visited him at the prison several times. He had to be carried out each time.
