Mr. Jiang Zhijiang Tortured after the “700-Signature Petition Incident” and Indefinitely Detained

Name: Jia Zhijiang (贾志江)
Gender: Male
Age: 40s
Address: Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Chef
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 13, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Zhengding County Detention Center (正定县看守所)
City: Shijiazhuang
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labor, beatings, torture, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

(Minghui.org) More than 700 villagers from Zhengding County, Hebei Province, signed a petition in June 2012, demanding the release of Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Lankui, who was illegally arrested on June 7, 2012. After the incident was widely covered in the media inside and outside of China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents carried out large-scale arrests in an effort to identify who posted the details of the petition on the Internet. Mr. Jia Zhijiang was among those detained. He has been detained for almost six months, during which time he has been subjected to severe physical abuse and torture.

The large-scale arrests began on July 22, 2012. Sixteen practitioners, along with their family members from Zhengding County, Gaocheng County, and Shijazhuang City, were arrested and detained. While practitioner Ms. Yang Yinqia was being arrested, she fell from the window of her fifth floor apartment and died. Fifteen people were covered with black hoods and forcibly taken from their homes.

Sketch of the CCP method of torture: Tied to an iron chair

Mr. Jia Zhijiang was arrested on the evening of August 13, 2012, at his rented home in Shijiazhuang City. Participating in the arrest were about eight officers including Zhengding County Police Department deputy head Gao Guo, Domestic Security Division head Liu Jinjiang, and others. They took him to the Zhengding Detention Center.

For more than three months, Mr. Jia's family hadn't received any information about him. They hired a lawyer and were able to see Mr. Jia in the Zhengding Detention Center for the first time.

They learned that Mr. Jia was taken to a police dog training base and cruelly tortured in the following ways:

1. Sleep deprivation: The guards covered his head with a black hood day and night for more than 10 days. They would brutally beat him if he dozed off even slightly.

2. Beatings: The guards punched his head, tightened a rope around his mouth, stamped on his toes until his toenails fell off, pulled his beard, and puffed smoke into his face when they smoked.

3. Shackled: Mr. Jia was in shackles from August 13 to 29. As a result his feet swelled up so much that he couldn't walk, and then the guards beat him.

4. The iron chair: Mr. Jia was tied to an iron chair from August 13 to 29 and only released when he used the restroom.

5. The guards beat the soles of his feet and his back and hands with wooden clubs, and they also slapped him in the face.

Mr. Jia Zhijiang's lawyer recently met with him again in the Zhengding Detention Center and learned that he was forced to do hard labor every day. He packaged disposable chopsticks. If he was slow, inmates in his cell would burn his fingernails until they were black with cigarette butts.

Mr. Jia has accused the guards of torturing him. Zhengding Procuratorate has returned his case files to the Zhengding Police Department for supplementary investigation.

Mr. Jia's Wife Arrested and Tortured; Their Son Left Uncared For

After Mr. Jia was arrested at his home on August 13, 2012, his wife Ms. Li Rongmei went to the Donghuan Police Station many times to inquire about his whereabouts. On August 19, police officers deceived her by saying that they would take her to see her husband. Instead, they took her to the police dog training base, where they physically abused and threatened her.

They cuffed her hands and feet to an iron chair and covered her head with a black hood. More than 10 officers, including Zhengding Police Department deputy head Gao Guo and Domestic Security Division head Liu Jinjiang, deprived her of sleep for more than 10 days, and took turns trying extract a “confession” from her by threatening her with the safety of her son, until she became extremely weak, and was near a mental breakdown. They also injected her with unknown drugs.

Ms. Li Rongmei was sent to the city's No.2 Detention Center on August 31 and held there for one month. Mr. Jia and Ms. Li's son had just graduated from elementary school. He was left uncared for, and had to drop out of school because he missed the enrollment date. He went to Donghuan Police Station daily to demand his mother's release, but to no avail. He returned in tears to his deserted home that had been ransacked twice by the police. He wrote in his diary: “My dad and mom are both good people. Just because they refuse to give up their belief, they have been arrested and detained many times and I don't know where they are. They were wearing summer clothes when the police took them away. As their child, I feel so sad for not being able to fulfill my filial duties to my parents and I can't even deliver clothes to them.” The boy later even thought about committing suicide.

To learn more details about the persecution of Mr. Jia's family of three, please read: “Jia Zhijiang and Wife Li Rongmei Arrested, Their Young Son Now on His Own” http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/9/14/135412.html

Background of the “700-Signature Petition”

In June 2012, a state governor from the United States visited Zhengding County, Hebei Province, at the invitation of Xi Jinping, a member of the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee and the man who succeed Hu Jintao as the CCP's top leader. The regime agents arrested Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Lankui from Dong'anfeng Village prior to the visit. More than 700 of his fellow villagers signed a petition demanding his release and wrote a letter to the governor in the U.S. to call the matter to his attention. Regime authorities then dispatched officials to Donganfeng Village. They harassed and threatened the locals,and also arrested Mr. Li Lankui's family members and Falun Gong practitioners in an attempt to find out who posted the petition with the 700 signatures on the Internet.

The arrests began on July 22, 2012, and 16 practitioners and their family members were arrested and detained.

Fifteen people were covered with black hoods and taken from their homes, which were then ransacked. It is believed that they were taken to the Shijiazhuang City No. 1 Detention Center, where they were subjected to various forms of physical abuse and torture, such as being shackled to an iron chair, sleep deprivation, ruthless beatings, and shocks with high-voltage electric batons.

Ms. Yang Yinqia fell from the window of her fifth floor apartment and died. Three practitioners were sent to a forced labor camp on August 29, and three were officially arrested around September 25.

Those with a strong conscience, however, were undeterred. Four groups of people, a total of more than 3000, have signed the petition, calling for an end to the persecution of innocent Falun Gong practitioners.

Detailed information about Mr. Li Lankui's arrest and the 700-signature petition demanding Mr. Li's release can be found in the article, “Over 700 People Join in Effort to Rescue Mr. Li Lankui (Photos)”
http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/8/5/134795.html

Parties involved in the persecution:
Zhengding County Police Department in Hebei Province: [phone], [phone], [phone]
Cao Yongyue, deputy political head: [phone]
Sun Xinfang, 610 Office deputy head: [phone]
Liu Jinjiang, chief of Domestic Security Division: [phone]
Please refer to the original Chinese article for more people and offices involved in the persecution.