Since 2013, Alamusha has been tortured because of his refusal to enter a guilty plea. His conversion to Christianity while incarcerated made matters worse.
Chinese prisons are not known for upholding human rights, but the systematic cruel torture of its 2,000 detainees at Hohhot High Security Prison in Southern Mongolia—referred to as Inner Mongolia by Beijing’s authorities—made it nationally well-known.
Some inmates endure more severe torture than others, even in this hell on earth. Before being removed by the authorities, his aunt’s petition went viral on social media, alerting people to the plight of Alamusha, also known as Alamus or Alamsha, a 28-year-old art student from a herdsman family in the Xilingol League. He stepped in to protect a classmate who was being beaten in the street in 2013, while on vacation at home from Shanghai Theater Academy. It is possible that Alamusha’s height and strength led to him being mistakenly blamed for the fight. He was placed in the notorious Hohhot High Security Prison and given a 15-year prison sentence.
As is the case with all prisoners who, like him, deny their guilt, he was tortured from the start. But according to his family, things have been worse lately. Almost amazingly, Alamusha was able to obtain a smuggled Bible and learn about Christianity from other prisoners. He called himself a Christian after finding a glimmer of hope in religion throughout his dire circumstances.
The goal of Hohhot High Security (now Number 3) Prison is not to convert prisoners to Christianity. The torture got worse. Alamusha suffered a ruptured eardrum as a result of being badly assaulted by a common criminal who was housed in the same jail as well as by a sadistic police officer named Nie Yonggang, according to his aunt and previous prisoners. He was placed in a solitary cell after complaining to the prison administration. Every day, he was given a single steamed bun to eat and a tiny glass of water to drink. To stay alive, he had to sip water from the urinal.
His feet were badly frostbitten, and he was shackled without a quilt (it was -15 degrees Celsius outside and about zero degrees inside the jail during the Southern Mongolian winter). After he signed a written pledge not to file charges, he was eventually allowed to return to the jail area.
After the family complained, Alamusha was returned to the isolated cell.
He was permanently bound and unable to stand or straighten his back for over forty days. They tied him to a tiger bench and thrashed him mercilessly. His feeding ratios were further decreased till he nearly died of starvation.
