(Minghui.org) A Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province resident was sentenced to four years in prison in 2015 for filing a criminal complaint against former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Mr. Cao Qicai's elderly parents, whose health declined rapidly after his arrest, were devastated, as they relied on him for financial support. Feeling utterly helpless under extreme pressure and anxiety, his father committed suicide by smashing his head against the wall, leaving behind his fragile mother struggling on her own.
Unlawful Arrests
Mr. Cao filed a complaint against Jiang Zemin in June 2015 for initiating the persecution of Falun Gong. Because of this, he was unlawfully arrested by police on July 12 the same year.
His home was searched and ransacked. The police took away all of his Falun Gong-related materials, computers, the receipt for his criminal complaint, and many other personal belongings.
While Mr. Cao managed to escape in the afternoon, he was arrested again in early August and sent to Shuangcheng Detention Center 14 days later. He was subjected to corporal punishment at the detention center, including being forced to sit on a small stool from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. He was given only a steamed bun for each meal.
Torture reenactment: Sitting on small stools
Sentenced to Prison
Mr. Cao was tried in a secret trial three months later. His family was not notified, nor was he allowed to have an attorney to represent him. More than 30 government officials attended the hearing.
“When I tried to defend myself, presiding judge Hu Yelin immediately shut me up,” Mr. Cao recounted, “When I finally got a chance to say ‘There is nothing wrong with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,’ the judge brought the gavel down and adjourned the hearing in a rush.”
“He then sentenced me to four years in prison. I refused to sign the paper, and appealed to Harbin Intermediate Court. Two staff members came and told me there was no use in appealing. The court decided to uphold the sentence, and I was transferred to Hulan Prison eight months later.”
Physical Abuse at Hulan Prison
Mr. Cao was first placed in the “Training Team” for new arrivals for three months. He was strip-searched and had to sleep on a bed (1.5m in width) with five others. The bed was hard and they had no pillows.
“It was so crowded that we could not move at all. My whole body felt very sore every morning when I got up,” Mr. Cao recounted.
Demonstration of several people sharing a small bed
Mr. Cao was monitored by three inmates, and was forced to stand still from 4:00 a.m. until after midnight daily.
“They did not allow me to use the toilet or drink water. When I closed my eyes, they forced open my eyelids.”
The inmates beat him and violently kicked him when he refused to sign the statements to renounce Falun Gong. They said if they didn't treat him this way they would be punished by the prison, and would not get sentence reductions.
“They kicked my back very hard, and when I fell to the ground, they pulled me up and kept kicking me. They also used their elbows to strike the artery on my neck and smashed my head against the wall. I later became so weak and emaciated that I could hardly stand and had difficulty breathing,” Mr. Cao said.
After three months of intensified persecution in the “Training Team,” he was sent to Division 6 of Hulan Prison on July 9, 2017, where he was subjected to more maltreatment and torture.
The Hulan Prison had a surveillance system that monitors every corner of the prison, with no blind spots. When Mr. Cao was seen doing a meditation exercise, instructor Xu Yanjun was furious and shocked his neck, shoulders, and other sensitive parts of his body with an electric baton, leaving his body covered with bruises.
Hunger Strike Protesting Solitary Confinement
Mr. Cao was locked in solitary confinement one afternoon. He started a hunger strike on the fifth day, demanding immediate release from the confinement.
Two days later, instructor Xu Yanjun and guard Zhang Jia came to threaten him, “If you continue with the hunger strike and refuse to wear the prison uniform, we will stretch you, and force-feed you with a thick tube. Even someone much stronger than you could not stick it out...” But Mr. Cao refused to give in.
Mr. Cao was in critical condition by the afternoon of the fifth day of his hunger strike, but he remained conscious and was aware of what was happening.
“I was carried to the prison hospital, and the checkup showed that my heartbeat was 180 beats per minute, my blood pressure was over 200, and my blood sugar level was higher than the device could measure. I also had severe deficiency of potassium chloride, which could lead to death at any moment. The doctor said to the guards, ‘This man is dying.’”
The guards rushed him to a much larger hospital in Harbin City, where Mr. Cao's left leg was chained to the head of the bed and a tracker with alarm, weighing several kilograms, was cuffed to his right leg. He was under watch of the prison guards around the clock.
When his family went to see him, they were not allowed to talk to him. When his younger sister challenged the guards about his condition, the guards said, “Your brother refused to wear prison uniform and refused to eat. His condition has nothing to do with us. You can sue us anywhere you like. We don't care.”
They also demanded that his family pay all his medical expenses.
“My family members tried to hire a lawyer to defend me, but no one dared to take on a Falun Gong case, saying there was no chance they could win even if I was innocent,” Mr. Cao recounted.
On the sixth day, when Mr. Cao was discharged from the hospital, the prison guards tried to force him to wear the prison uniform.
“When I refused, they threatened my younger sister and my daughter, saying if I refused to wear the uniform, I would suffer even more when I got back to prison. I still refused to comply. In the end, they put me in shackles and took me back to prison.”
When Falun Gong practitioners complained about the prison’s abuse during a visit by an inspection team from China's Ministry of Justice in April 2019, the prison leadership intercepted their complaints and wrote down the names of the practitioners who filed them, for future retaliation.
Harassed after Release
When Mr. Cao was released on August 2, 2019, officers from the local 610 Office and police stations asked him to sign various documents and told him to report to them every month.
“I refused to sign anything because I had not done anything wrong by trying to be a good person, following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I was unlawfully jailed for four years simply because I filed a complaint against Jiang Zemin,” Mr. Cao recounted.
Even though Mr. Cao is now back home, his family members are still harassed by police, who call them from time to time to check his status.
