Mr. Xue Xinde, 57, in Qinghai Province Sentenced to Four Years Imprisonment After Being Tortured

Name: Xue Xinde
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Address: Biantan Township, Huzhu County, Qinghai Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 13th, 2010
Most recent place of detention: County Detention Centre
City: Huzhu County, Xining City
Province: Qinghai Province
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brutal beatings, violent kicking, forced into half squat, face burned with cigarettes, hung with hands cuffed behind the back and other tortures, home ransacking, extortion, prison sentence.

In a secret hearing the local court in Huzhu Tu Ethnic Group Autonomous County, Qinghai Province sentenced Mr. Xue Xinde to a four-year prison term for refusing to give up his belief in Falun Gong. He was recently sent to the Haibei Haomen Farm in Qinghai Province, which is a unit especially set up to persecute male Falun Gong practitioners.

Mr. Xue was accused of using money with information exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in 2006. He was fired and forced to do manual labour in Xining. At around 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of July 13th, 2010, two plainclothes police from Xining City Domestic Security Division arrested him while he was walking in Bona Square in Guchengtai, Xining. He was transferred to Huzhu County Domestic Security Division two days later, and was detained in the local detention centre. He was recently sentenced.

Mr. Xue has been arrested before and tortured. He was paraded in public as a way to humiliate him.

On January 17th, 2001, officers from Huzhu County Police Department, Domestic Security Division, and Biantan Town Police Station, arrested Mr. Xue Xinde at his home, charging that he distributed materials on Falun Gong in Biantan Town. Director Yin Xianzhang and deputy director Qi Xingming led a group of officers to beat Mr. Xue, and employed tortures which caused both physical and mental injury.

During a bitterly cold winter, police forced Mr. Xue, who was weak due to being tortured, to kneel on the ground. They kicked his head with their heavy boots until he lost consciousness, then beat his face with their fists until it was covered with blood. They forced him into a squatting stance, and kicked his back. They burned his face with cigarettes, and employed a variety of other tortures.

Although the persecutors tried many different tortures to force Mr. Xue to abandon his belief, nothing worked. Mr. Xue would not give up his belief in Falun Gong. In a last desperate attempt, the police cuffed his hands behind his back and suspended Mr. Xue above the ground. For eight hours the handcuffs cut into Mr. Xue's wrists. His body was covered in blood. When he was taken down, he collapsed.

On April 17th, 2001, Mr. Xue and three other Falun Gong practitioners were forced to parade themselves in public, with placards hanging in front of them that read, “Against law enforcement” and their names. They were paraded along streets throughout the county. They were then taken to Westgate Stadium, which was filled with spectators. They were placed next to murderers and other criminals. In this televised event with tens of millions watching, Mr. Xue and the other three Falun Gong practitioners were called out and denounced. Event coordinators had organized people who misunderstood Falun Gong to publicly defame Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners.

Mr. Xue and the other three Falun Gong practitioners were later taken to Biantan Town. On the playground of the local school, the police held a second rally. The practitioners were again forced to parade with placards. They were humiliated in front of their relatives and friends—a painful experience. Mr. Xue was detained for nine months and then sent to a forced labour camp for two and a half years. When his sentence ended, his home was ransacked and his family was threatened and fined. The persecution against him caused great trauma to his family.

Related article: http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/9/1/119747.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/9/4/246242.html