Alamusha was mistreated since 2013 because he refused to plead guilty. Things got worse when he converted to Christianity in jail.
by Zeng Liqin
Chinese jails are not famous for their respect of human rights, but Hohhot High Security Prison in Southern Mongolia (called by Beijing’s authorities Inner Mongolia) became nationally famous for the systematic sadistic torture of its 2,000 inmates. It was renamed Hohhot Number 3 Prison last summer, but unfortunately the change of name did not cause a change of behavior of the guards.
Even in this hell on earth, some prisoners are tortured more harshly than others. An appeal by his aunt widely circulated on social media—before being taken down by the authorities—alerted the world on the situation of Alamusha, also spelled Alamus or Alamsha, a 28-year-old art student from a family of herdsmen in Xilingol League. In 2013, while on holiday at home from his studies at Shanghai Theater Academy, he intervened to defend a classmate who was being beaten in the street. Perhaps because he is a tall and strong man, Alamusha was falsely identified as the main responsible of the brawl. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail and imprisoned in the dreaded Hohhot High Security Prison.
He was tortured from the beginning, as happens to all the inmates who, like him, refuse to confess they are guilty. However, as his family reports, things recently got worse. Almost miraculously, through other inmates, Alamusha learned about Christianity and was even able to get hold of a smuggled Bible. He found a ray of hope in his desperate situation in religion and declared himself a convert to Christianity.
Making inmates Christians is not what Hohhot High Security (now Number 3) Prison is intended for. Torture worsened. According to his aunt and to former inmates, Alamusha was severely beaten by a sadistic police officer called Nie Yonggang and by a common criminal detained in the same jail, resulting in a perforated eardrum. He complained to the prison authorities, and as a result was put in a solitary cell. He was fed only one steamed bun to eat, and a small glass of water to drink every day. He had to drink water from the urinal to survive.
He was shackled, not covered with a quilt (in the Southern Mongolian winter, the external temperature was -15 Celsius, and the internal temperature in the jail around zero), and his feet were severely frostbitten. He was finally released to the prison area when he promised in writing not to press charges. “We are the most helpless herdsmen, his aunt said. You can’t bully people like this. You can’t bully such a poor child like this, right? You can’t torture people to death!”
Complaints by the family resulted in Alamusha being brought back to the solitary cell. He was deprived of his personal underwear and his own prison uniform. He was given old and dirty prison clothing from released prisoners instead.
For more than forty days, he remained permanently shackled, unable to stand or straighten his back. He was beaten at every turn and tied to a tiger bench. He was almost starved to death as his food ratios were reduced even further.
The video of Alamusha’s aunt went viral and circulated even internationally. Reactions by Chinese authorities are unpredictable, but international appeals may sometimes help.