Electric batons are among the most commonly used torture instruments employed by police officers and jail guards in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. They use electric batons that carry voltages as high as 300,000 volts to shock practitioners’ sensitive areas, including the mouth, center of the palms, center of the bottom of the feet, genitals, chest, neck, and breasts. Sometimes they use several electric batons simultaneously to shock practitioners. The labour camp authorities often pour water on the practitioners to intensify the electric shocks. Some police also use a homemade electric shocking device; it resembles a masonry brick in size and shape, and it carries a much higher voltage than regular electric batons. The skin will break open and bleed in every place that receives a shock from this device.

[INTERNAL: http://www.faluninfo.net/torturemethods2/electric-shock/]

Gao Rongrong, 36, tortured with electric batons for seven consecutive hours

In July 2003, Gao Rongrong was sent to the Longshan Forced Labour Camp because she made peaceful appeals to the government to end the persecution of Falun Gong. During her detention, Ms. Gao had been beaten by camp officials, according to sources familiar with her case.

At approximately 3:00 p.m. on May 7, 2004, Tang Yubao, the deputy head of the No. 2 Brigade, along with team leader Jiang Zhaohua, called Ms. Gao to the duty office and tortured her with electric batons for seven hours, according to these sources. Those detained with Ms. Gao in the labour camp say she sustained burns on her face, head, and neck, which caused her face to swell and become disfigured. Her face was covered with blisters, and her hair was matted with pus and blood. She could open her eyes only a crack because her face and mouth were severely swollen and deformed.

Liu Yufeng, 64

Liu Yufeng was an honest and upright retired employee from the Xiaozetou Village of Songcun Town, Wendeng City, Shandong Province.

On the morning of July 18, 2000, police arrested Mr. Liu and detained him in the Wendeng Detention Center because he practiced Falun Gong exercises outdoors. On July 22, 2000, the detention center called his daughter, and told her to take Mr. Liu home.  He was already in a coma when his son-in-law carried him out, and died the next morning at 7 a.m..

The coroner’s autopsy revealed a mass of blood in Mr. Liu’s right eye rim, cuts and bruises on his face, and black and blue marks left by electric shocks on his throat, chest, and legs. His skin had begun to separate from his body because of repeated electric shocks, and the soft tissue below the skin was damaged. It was discovered that the second, third, and fourth ribs on both the right and left sides were fractured. The upper one-third of the sternum \[the bone running from the neck to the stomach; the breastbone] was broken.

Zhao Ming, 30

  “Two weeks before I was released, five policemen, including three section chiefs, shocked me with six electric batons simultaneously. They first bound me on a bed board to prevent my body from jumping when being shocked. Then they shocked me with electric batons on my legs, upper body, shoulders, and arms simultaneously, which made my body tremble very violently. One policeman kept shocking my chest by moving two batons over my chest in circle, which made me gasp for breath and made my throat dry as if it were burning.”

Prof. Zhang Kunlun

“My name is Kunlun Zhang. I am a Canadian citizen and a professor of art. Because I practice Falun Gong, I was arrested three times while staying in China to take care of my elderly mother-in-law. On November 14, 2000, I was sentenced without trial by the Chinese authorities to three years in labour camp because I refused to denounce Falun Gong. With the help of the Canadian government, Amnesty International, and the international community, I was released on January 10, 2001.

“During my detention, policemen beat me to the floor and shocked me all over my body with high-voltage electric batons. They threatened that if I uttered a sound, they would shock my mouth. The head of the police station said to me, “We have orders from Jiang Zemin. As long as you refuse to denounce Falun Gong, we can do whatever we want to you. If you were beaten to death, we could simply bury you and tell the outside world that you had committed suicide.” My arms, legs, and other areas were burnt in many places from the intense electric shocks. I could even smell my own burning flesh. The beatings and electric shocks injured my left leg badly. It took three months for the wounds to heal.”