Name: Dou Changying (窦长营)
Gender: Male
Age: 58
Address: Dongfa County, Zhaodong City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 5, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hulan Prison (呼兰监狱)
City: Zhaodong
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Illegal sentencing, beatings, imprisonment, torture, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denied visitation
Key Persecutors: Yang Lijun(杨丽君), Wang Jin (王瑾), Jiang Shiwei (蒋士伟), Gong Sheng (高升), Lin Wangqing (林万庆), Wang Ronghui (王荣辉), and Chen Weiqiang (陈维强)
(Minghui.org) Mr. Dou Changying, 58, is a resident of Dongfa County, Zhaodong City, Heilongjiang Province. On December 4, 2010, he was sentenced to five years of imprisonment for practicing Falun Gong. Mr. Dou has been incarcerated and severely abused in Hulan Prison. The prison authorities denied his family the right to visit him for over a year. He is currently extremely emaciated and has difficulty standing, breathing and speaking. The prison refuses to release him.
Mr. Dou has been persecuted for his belief for 13 years. He has been illegally arrested and detained four times, and forced to leave home for nearly a year. Police also ransacked his residence. The details of Mr. Dou's persecution case are listed below.
Arrested and Detained Multiple Times for Practicing Falun Gong
Mr. Dou began to practice Falun Gong in 1997. His health improved as a result, and his family was living an ordinary but happy life. However, that changed in 1999, when the Chinese communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
On December 24, 2000, Yang Lijun, deputy director of the Dongfa Township Police Station, Wang Jing, official from the Dongfa government, and two other police officers arrested Mr. Dou. He was detained in the Zhaodong Detention Center for 169 days, along with more than twenty other practitioners.
In 2002, Yang Lijun and police officers Jiang Shiwei and Gao Sheng arrested him again, detaining him for 33 days.
On November 19, 2004, Mr. Dou gave some informational materials about Falun Gong to a villager at a market. Later, this villager passed the materials to someone else. For this seemingly innocent act, he was reported to the authorities and arrested by officers from the Minzhu Police Station. When he was interrogated about the source of the materials, he named Mr. Dou.
Shortly afterward, Wang Ronghui, deputy director of the Minzhu Police Station, and Lin Wanqing, deputy director of the Dongfa Police Station, broke into Mr. Dou's home, declaring that they were sent by the Zhaodong City 610 Office. They tried to force Mr. Dou and his wife to sign a statement renouncing Falun Gong, but the couple refused. The policemen then confiscated their Falun Gong books and materials and arrested Mr. Dou, taking him to the Minzhu Police Station.
Mr. Dou was interrogated through torture and then sent to the Zhaodong City Detention Center. There, he was interrogated again and beaten several times by the detention center personnel and agents from the 610 Office. He was handcuffed and transferred to the Zhaodong Reformatory 13 days later.
The reformatory didn't give enough food to Falun Gong practitioners. The guards also ordered criminal inmates to beat Mr. Dou. His eyes were so swollen following the beating that he could not open them. Later, authorities sentenced Mr. Dou to three years of forced labor and sent him to the Suihua Forced Labor Camp. However, the labor camp refused to accept him because he was found to have a cerebral infarction upon physical examination. Thus, he was brought back to the reformatory.
Mr. Dou went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Five days later, he was released on medical parole. As he walked out of the reformatory, Liu Weizhong threatened him, "You won't have many days to live even if you are out."
After Mr. Dou returned home, he resumed his Falun Gong practice and regained his health.
Arrested Again and Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
On July 14, 2009, Mr. Dou's neighbors witnessed police entering his home and ransacking the place. The officers confiscated Falun Gong books and materials, DVDs, a computer, and more than 500 yuan in cash. Mr. Dou saw two police cars parked in front of his house as he rode a bike. To avoid being arrested, he didn't return home. Police came to his house several times thereafter to arrest him. Since they could not find Mr. Dou, they threatened his family. Mr. Dou had to live in exile for nearly a year to avoid arrest.
Around 6 a.m. on April 28, 2010, shortly after Mr. Dou had returned home, Jiang Shiwei, police officer from the Dongfa Police Station, deceived him into coming to the police station and then arrested him. On December 4, 2010, Zhaodong City Court sentenced Mr. Dou to five years in prison. Mr. Dou has been detained in the Hulan Prison ever since.
Family Not Allowed to Visit for Over a Year
In the prison, Mr. Dou has been detained in the “reinforced” section because he refused to renounce his faith in Falun Gong. For a year and a half, his family was not allowed to visit him or send him any supplies. When his family went to the prison hoping to visit him on April 14, 2012, a guard turned them away, saying, "Inmates on death row or drug dealers can be visited but not Falun Gong practitioners."
On April 16, 2012, Mr. Dou's family came to the prison again and demanded to see Mr. Dou. Chen Weiqiang, an agent from the 610 Office, rudely refused their request. They then requested to speak to the prison director, but he refused to see them.
Afterward, Mr. Dou's family went to the Heilongjiang Prison Management Bureau. The head of the Appeals Office, with surname Lin, said to them, "He is not dead yet, no visits." With no other choice left, the family then hired a lawyer.
After the lawyer’s persistent negotiations, the prison authorities finally allowed Mr. Dou's wife to see her husband on April 22, 2012. The couple was surrounded by the guards during their meeting. No other family members were allowed in; all of them were closely monitored by the guards as they waited outside.
On the Verge of Death in Hulan Prison
On the morning of November 29, 2012, Mr. Dou’s family received a phone call from Hulan Prison, informing them that Mr. Dou was in poor health. The prison officials told the family to send money for his treatment.
Worried about their loved one, Mr. Dou's family came to Hulan Prison shortly after 5 p.m. However, the guard at the gate told them that visitors were not allowed. Mr. Dou’s wife then called Chen Weiqiang, the section chief of the Prison Politics Section, demanding to see her husband. Chen told her that Mr. Dou was not ill but just weak. Upon the wife's insistence, Chen told her to come back the next day.
Mr. Dou's family was finally allowed to see Mr. Dou around 10:40 a.m. the next day. He was carried out by two people. He was unable to stand steadily and had to be supported by an inmate. He appeared extremely weak and had trouble breathing. He spoke in a low voice and had to pause and rest after each sentence. His face was very pale, and he was extremely emaciated and hardly recognizable.
Mr. Dou told his family that he had been beaten and asked them to file a lawsuit against the prison. He told them, "I have been severely persecuted here... I was beaten up badly... They kicked me really hard in my chest and my back." His family asked, "Do you know who did that to you?" He replied, "I know," and held up three fingers, indicating that three people were involved.
Mr. Dou added, "You must file the lawsuit! ... I was persecuted to this extent." When he opened his mouth and tried to speak again, he had no strength left to continue. He sat down and breathed heavily for a long time. Then he was carried away.
Seeing that Mr. Dou was on the verge of death, his family visited Chen Weiqiang in the afternoon of the same day and requested for Mr. Dou to be released on medical parole. However, Chen defiantly told them: “He is not sick but just short of nutrition. He held a hunger strike. There was nothing we could do. The prison doctor checked him and said he was not sick." When the family requested to see the doctor's record, Chen said he was unable to show it. The family asked him, "He is in such poor condition. If anything happens to him, are you going to be responsible?" Chen coldly replied, "He did not eat anything because he didn't like the food. We are not responsible for him." He also denied that Mr. Dou had been beaten.
Mr. Dou's family calls on the international community to help them secure Mr. Dou's unconditional release.
Contact information for parties involved in the persecution:
Jiang Shiwei, officer of Dongfa Police Station: 86-15846024789 (Cell)
