Hou Kequan, male, born May 18, 1949, resident of Tanghe County, Henan Province, started believing in the Lord Jesus in 1994, and joined The Church of Almighty God (CAG) in October 2002. On May 18, 2003, Hou was arrested by the police of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for believing in Almighty God. He was imprisoned for one year and nine months. During his incarceration, he was brutally tortured by the CCP police whereby he sustained two fractured ribs, spinal fractures and loss of all his teeth. After his release on February 8, 2005, Hou became mentally ill and died in August 2011, at the age of 62.
On May 18, 2003 at about 7 p.m., when Hou Kequan was listening to the sermon at home, Yan Zhenhua, director of the village security force, suddenly entered Hou’s home with two policemen from the Huyang Town Police Station. The police seized VCDs and spiritual CDs from the house and escorted Hou to the Huyang Town Police Station.
At the police station, the police interrogated Hou Kequan unsuccessfully about matters of belief in God. Hou was escorted to the Tanghe Detention Center and subsequently transferred to the Xuchang Prison. During interrogation, when the police saw that Hou remain reticent, three policemen struck him randomly on his body, with batons, steel bars, and electric whips. They also violently struck his face with their soles. His head and face were severely swollen, and he sustained two broken ribs.
In early July of the same year, Hou Kequan was sentenced to one year and nine months of re-education through labor and was transferred to the Xuchang Labor Camp.
On February 8, 2005, Hou Kequan was released. When he returned home, his wife was startled when she saw him. He was unkempt and skinny, his hair messy and all gray, his face yellowish with a pair of collapsed eye sockets, and his walk was difficult. His puckered mouth made him look like a 70-year-old man while he was only in his 50s. According to Hou Kequan, the police brutally tortured him. They whipped him with a chain, struck his face with their soles and knocked out all his teeth. They also beat him forcefully on his back with a thick stick until the stick snapped and his spine fractured. In the labor camp, the police often instigated other prisoners to beat him, and forced him to get up early every day to manufacture wigs until late at night.
Before Hou Kequan was arrested, he was in good health and free from illness. He used to do all the farm work at home. He was in good spiritual and physical shape. He greeted everyone with a smile, and the neighbors liked his company. After being 57 released, Hou was suffering from brain dysfunction and mental disorder. Occasionally, he was very frightened, and he cried bitterly. Sometimes he would walk off abruptly and run around. No one could stop him. He had an insatiable appetite. As soon as dinner was finished, he would have snacks like a child. At night, he ran around with a miner’s lamp and a bamboo stick in his hands until 2 or 3 a.m., occasionally until 3 or 4 a.m. Sometimes he slept for two days in a row.
Due to the CCP’s arrest and torture, Hou Kequan had become insane and lost his normal life. He died on August 21, 2011.
