(Minghui.org)
Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name: Gao Mingxing (高明星)
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Anshan City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 1, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shenyang No. 1 Prison (沈阳第一监狱)
City: Shenyang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Illegal sentencing, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, physical restraint, interrogation, detention, denied visitation.
Key Persecutors: Sui Haigang (隋海刚) from the State Security Bureau in Liaoyang and prison guard captain Fan (范) from Shenyang No. 1 Prison.
Mr. Gao Mingxing, a Falun Gong practitioner from Anshan City, Liaoning Province, is dying as a result of torture and abuse at the Panjin Prison and Shenyang No. 1 Prison in Liaoning Province.
He was sentenced to a 12-year prison term after being arrested on August 1, 2007, for replacing regular TV programming with videos that explained the facts about Falun Gong in February and August 2004, in order to expose the lies spread by the Chinese communist regime.
In violation of China's Constitution, the communist regime began depriving the citizens of China the freedom to practice Falun Gong, as well as the freedom to clarify the truth about the practice, in July 1999. Since then, the regime has continuously run hate propaganda on all state-run media in China to instigate hatred against Falun Gong and justify the inhumane persecution. The regime has also deprived its citizens of their constitutional right to appeal for their right to practice Falun Gong.
Here is a summary of the torture and abuse that Mr. Gao has faced.
Arrest, Interrogation and Torture
Officers from the Dandong City National Security Bureau arrested Mr. Gao without a warrant on August 1, 2007, when he was leaving his uncle's home in Zixing Village, Shalizhai Township, Dandong City, Liaoning Province. The police did not book or detain him in an official detention facility. Instead, they held him a hotel room in Wulongbei Spa, where they secretly interrogated and tortured him.
Mr. Gao was eventually transferred to Liaoyang City Detention Center in 2008. One day, Sui Haigang and five other officers from the Domestic Security Division in Liaoyang took him out for interrogation. They put him in a spread-eagled position and beat him with clubs. Mr. Gao was seriously injured and passed out repeatedly.
He was so badly injured that the detention center refused to accept him when the officers returned him there. They only agreed to take him after the officers acknowledged in writing that they had inflicted physical injuries on Mr. Gao, and that they would take responsibility if he should die. Mr. Gao was bedridden for more than 40 days. He lost one tooth, and the rest of his teeth were loosened.
Twelve-Year Prison Sentence
Mr. Gao was tried at court in Liaoning and sentenced to 12 years in prison. His family was not notified of the trial.
It took his parents a long time to find out that he had been transferred from the detention center to a prison. They were repeatedly denied of their right to see Mr. Gao, until they were finally able to reach a prison administrator.
Upon visiting their son, the parents saw that Mr. Gao had recovered somewhat and was able to walk. Mr. Gao told them who had inflicted the injuries on him and that there was still a large amount of fluid in his chest.
When his parents and relatives saw him again in prison on February 2, 2009, Mr. Gao had become a sack of bones. He looked so emaciated that his parents hardly recognized him.
His parents were notified by the prison a few days later that he was dying from a hunger strike and chest fluid. He was transferred to the prison hospital for treatment before the prison requested bail for him two months later. However, the Anshan City Domestic Security Division and the local 610 Office refused to accept the request for bail.
Mr. Gao started a hunger strike as a non-violent means to protest the unconstitutional policy on Falun Gong. He was handcuffed to the bed by wrist and ankle after being transferred to the prison hospital. He lost the ability to walk after being handcuffed to the bed for two months.
Mr. Gao was incarcerated in the prison hospital for three years. His parents visited him in the prison hospital several times. Mr. Gao was able to walk to the visiting room at first, but in the end he had to be carried by two people.
Solitary Confinement in Shenyang No. 1 Prison
Mr. Gao was transferred to Shenyang No. 1 Prison on May 8, 2012, after Panjin Prison closed down. He was locked in the section exclusively for the elderly and disabled inmates.
His family was denied their visitation right, and told that Mr. Gao was “perfectly healthy.” A prison guard captain named Fan claimed that Mr. Gao would be released as soon as he agreed to renounce Falun Gong. He also boasted that he has many torture methods to make Falun Gong practitioners renounce their faith.
Mr. Gao's family was granted a meeting with him on May 14, 2012. They saw him in a wheelchair, almost too weak to speak. They could only hear his faint voice when they put their ears next to his lips.
His parents were not allowed to see him again until January 13, 2013. They learned that Mr. Gao had been subjected to torture because he refused to renounce his faith in Falun Gong. They saw that Mr. Gao had lost nearly all of his teeth due to torture. He told his parents that he had been kept in a solitary confinement the entire time. He said, “If I should die, it is because of the torture in prison.”
Mr. Gao was transferred internally to Section 19 of the prison in early 2013. His parents tried to contact the administrator of Section 19, but to no avail. They eventually managed to get in touch with the warden and obtained the phone number of Song, who oversees Section 19. Song admitted putting Mr. Gao in solitary confinement and pledged to keep him there until he renounced Falun Gong.
Mr. Gao's parents do not practice Falun Gong, but they respect their son's faith in Falun Gong and his freedom of spiritual belief. They call for the public's help to free their son.
