(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Song Anyu from Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was released in April 2016, after having been imprisoned for 14 years. He was tortured while in detention and imprisoned multiple times after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999.
Suspended in the Air With Hands Tied Behind His Back
Torture Illustration: Suspended with both hands tied behind
When the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Song Anyu went to the provincial government to appeal for Falun Gong. He was detained in a stadium with many other practitioners until late that evening. He was 31 at the time.
Mr. Song was then arrested on September 8, 2000 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong and the persecution. Police officers searched his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books, two tape recorders and many cassettes. He was taken to the Minhanglu Police Station in Qiqihar City.
They cuffed his hands behind his back and hung him from a pipe so that the tips of his toes barely touched the floor. They beat him for two hours with a wooden board. He felt as though his ribs had been torn open, and his whole body was numb.
That night he was taken to Detention Center No.1 in Qiqihar. Two days later, he was interrogated and hung up again afterwards for more than two hours. As a result, he wasn’t even able to hold a rice bowl with his hands. The scars on his wrists were visible even a year later. Today, he is still unable to touch his back with his hands.
Mr. Song was held for two months in the detention center in Qiqihar, and after that was incarcerated for another month in the Nangang District Detention Center in Harbin City.
Police Officer Rolled His Shoe on His Broken Knee
Mr. Song was visiting a fellow practitioner at his home in April 2002 when police officers surrounded the building. Mr. Song jumped from the 5th floor and broke numerous bones in his legs and feet. His kneecap was crushed, and he was taken to a hospital for an X-ray. Even though police officers knew that he was severely injured, they took him to the Beijuzhai Police Station where they interrogated him.
Four police officers held his legs and his arms. A burning cigarette was inserted into his nostrils. One of the officers pressed on Mr. Song’s crushed knee with his shoe and rolled the shoe back and forth, while he yelled, “I am a butcher, I am a murderer!” The pain of this torture was unbearable for Song.
Torture Re-enactment: Inhaling Smoke
Mr. Song was then taken to the Tiefeng District Criminal Police Division for further interrogation. They connected his thumb to a phone line and used the phone to shock him with electricity.
Torture Illustration: Electric Shock with Telephone Wires
Mr. Song was then tied to a metal chair. His legs were put on a bench. His hands were cuffed behind his back and through the holes in the back of the chair. He was tied there for seven days and provided with very little food.
He was later taken to Xinsheng Hospital (now called Tailai Prison Hospital). The bone fractures in his right knee were removed and a metal wire was inserted to hold his knee together. They took him back to the Detention Center at Qiqihar one month later.
Mr. Song was unable to take care of himself and could not even turn over in bed. The metal wire in his knee somehow pushed out of his knee and pierced through his pants. The wire was not removed until half a year later, when he was taken to Tailai Prison.
Suffering 13 Years in Prison
Mr. Song was detained for nearly a year before he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. This occurred because he had operated a materials production site. He was taken to Tailai Prison on April 25, 2003.
During the first four years in prison, Song was unable to squat down and was only able to stand a few minutes at a time. The prison inmates were assigned to watch him constantly.
In 2010, he was forced to stand up with handcuffs and shackles because he refused to write a statement in which he promised not to practice Falun Gong. Because of his knee injury, he was unable to stand for long. They then made him sit on the concrete floor. Eight inmates watched him day and night to prevent him from sleeping. Sun Guoyu, head of Ward No.17, had the inmates torment him.
Mr. Song suffered for13 years in Tailai Prison and one year in a detention center. Though he is back home, he faces many difficulties, physical and financial. Currently, numerous Falun Gong practitioners are detained in Tailai Prison, and the persecution of practitioners is still going on.
