After 11 Years of Incarceration, Guangdong Man Faces Prosecution for His Faith
Mr. Wu Haibo, a 57-year-old pharmaceutical company technician, was fired and forced to serve over 11 years in labor camp and prison simply for upholding his faith and filing a legal complaint over the Chinese regime’s persecution.
Wu is one of thousands that have filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. In 2015, he was arrested and sentenced to 5 years in Sihui Prison.
The inmates there threatened Wu, “(If you do not renounce your faith), we will beat you until you are disabled, then cure you, and beat you to disability again.” Mr. Wu was tortured until his head bled, his arms were fractured, and all ten of his toenails either fell off or became necrotic. He was released in December 2020.
But the Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province resident is once again facing prosecution for his faith in Falun Gong. On March 5, 2022, Mr. Wu Haibo, 57, was arrested by officers of the Xiashan District Domestic Security Office and Xincun Police Station. He was first held at the Suixi County Detention Center and then transferred to the Zhanjiang City Detention Center. The Chikan District Court initially scheduled a hearing for August 12 but decided to postpone it due to a local outbreak of COVID-19.
Below is an excerpt written by Wu himself, detailing the persecution he suffered in prior years.
Testimony by Wu Haibo
Since the onset of the persecution in July 1999, I have been frequently harassed by the police and supervisors of the pharmaceutical company I worked at. They attempted to pressure me into renouncing Falun Gong by threatening to have me fired or sent to prison. The residential staff members also monitored me and occasionally came to my home to harass me. My family lived in fear for many years. The persecution has caused tremendous mental trauma for them.
In November 1999, I read news about Jiang Zemin smearing Falun Gong as a cult. I wrote a letter, clarifying the truth about Falun Gong. I went to Beijing and turned in the letter to the National Appeals Office, only to be arrested. I was detained in Beijing for three days and then another fifteen days after I was taken back to Zhanjiang. My workplace demoted me and suspended a large portion of my salary, giving me only the minimum to cover basic needs.
In February 2000, because of my doing the Falun Gong exercises in public, I was arrested and given three months of criminal detention.
I was arrested again in July 2001 in my workplace-assigned apartment and taken to a brainwashing center. While I escaped with the help of a co-worker, I was forced to live away from home. My workplace then fired me.
Two months later, I was arrested and given two years at the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp.
I was taken to the labor camp in late 2001 and held at the fifth team of the third ward, a place designated to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. During that time, I was taken to an empty building twice for intensified torture by 4 to 8 inmates.
They forced me to squat and handcuffed my arms to fixtures on the sides of my body. They beat me and pulled the handcuffs if I moved. Sometimes they shocked me with electric batons as well. I was deprived of sleep for days on end and not allowed to use the restroom.
Occasionally, I could hear screams of other practitioners being tortured in the same building. To cover up the torture, the guards began to play loud music outside of the building.
When I was taken back to the building several months later, the walls in the room were covered with thick insulation panels and the windows were all locked and covered. There was only a dim light in the room making it difficult to know whether it was day or night. They continued to beat and deprive me of sleep and restroom use.
A group of police officers and Chen Jun, the head of Zhanjiang City 610 Office, broke into my home on April 17, 2007. They not only ransacked my home, but also the homes of my mother-in-law and aunt. With the excuse that I had Falun Gong books and materials at home, I was detained as a criminal. The Xiashan District Court sentenced me to four years on January 23, 2008.
I was held in the 13th ward at Yangjiang Prison between April 2008 and February 2011. The prison’s president, Cai Xipeng, vice president Du Wentao, prison 610 Office directors Liang, Chen, and Fu, as well as guards Liufu Guofu, Shi Senhu, Feng Yihong, Wu, Xu Yun, Zeng Jianxing, Huang Jianyong, and Wang Weiwei were all responsible for the persecution.
Instigated by the guards, the inmates often dragged me to restrooms or bathrooms to torture me, as there were no surveillance cameras. When the persecution escalated, they transferred me to cells without surveillance cameras, so the inmates could torture me there. I was also constantly deprived of sleep and restroom use.
Because of the beatings, my left elbow bone joint was knocked out of position, and it has not recovered yet. They once held me to the ground and then twisted my neck. The pain was so excruciating that I passed out. Sometimes they twisted my hands and fingers, causing the joints to be badly swollen.
In another form of torture, they forced me to stand facing the wall and then lifted my arms up from behind. I experienced a splitting pain in my elbows and shoulders. Similarly, they pressed me against the ground, face down, and then pulled my arms from behind my back towards my head. Meanwhile, another inmate pulled my feet down, which also caused enormous pain to me.
When they did not want to spend too much effort beating me, they forced me to squat or stuff my head into the toilet. Sometimes they put a basin of cold water on my head. When I could not keep my balance, the basin fell over and the water would leave me soaked.
Another dreadful form of torture was to place my fingernails on burning incense, with the inmates blowing at it to make it burn faster. My fingernails had several holes after the burning. But the hole would disappear as the fingernail kept growing, which left no evidence of the torture.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
He Jinchen (何金陈), president of Chikan District Procuratorate: +86-13509936639, +86-759-3588901
Mo Wei (莫伟), vice president of Chikan District Procuratorate: +86-13790988238, +86-759-3588906
Du Bingcheng (杜炳成), vice president of Chikan District Procuratorate: +86-18820689892, +86-759-3588902
Ye Hui (叶辉), president of Chikan District Court: +86-13902507248
Mo Zhijun (莫志军), president of Chikan District Court: +86-13702733728
Based on an original report from Minghui.org.