Inside Bo Xilai's dungeon: victims reveal ruthless torture
In the first of a four-part series, Revisiting Chongqing, we look at one of the earliest and most high-profile victims of the disgraced party chief's crackdown on so-called gangsters
In mid-July 2009, 21-year-old Li Jun, freshly graduated from an American university, tried to call her father in Chongqing from a Greek restaurant in downtown New York.
In fact, her father Li Qiang, once one of the southwestern municipality's most successful businessmen, had been shackled to a metal chair by police mounting the mainland's largest anti-triad campaign in decades. A stocky man with a round face and big eyes, he was forced to sit in the straight-backed, custom-made chair which was too small for him, for 76 days. In addition he had heavy leg irons around his ankles and his wrists were in manacles, his daughter and a fellow prisoner said.
A black robe was often draped over his head most of the time. For the first five days and six nights he was not given any food or water, or allowed to go to the bathroom.
The fellow prisoner said Li was scared to sit on a bed after weeks on the chair, introduced by then Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun and widely used to torture suspects in the ruthless crackdown he oversaw. Many victims and police sources said that after weeks on the chair a suspect's feet became totally numb, and left them with long-lasting damage. Some had permanent spinal damage.
Li Jun tried to call her mother, her aunt and many other members of her family, but none of them answered. She began to grow more concerned.
