Xiaojun Chen is softly spoken at the best of times, but when he talks abut his years of imprisonment in Sihui Prison in China, his voice breaks and he has to pause frequently to regain his composure.
Xiaojun was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2001 for practicing Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, which is a spiritual, exercise and mediation-based discipline, with some similarity to t'ai chi. In 1999, the then president of China, Jiang Zemin, launched a campaign to eliminate the spiritual practice, demanding all followers stop practicing it immediately. Since then, foreign observers estimate that hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of Falun Dafa practitioners have been detained in "re-education through labour" camps, prisons and other detention facilities for refusing to renounce Falun Dafa.
Through a translator, Xiaojun describes the six years of torture he says he was subjected to.
My biggest fear was that I would never leave the prison. I thought one day they would kill me to sell my organs.
Xiaojun says Sihui prison, located in the Guangdong province of China, has become the subject of international attention following reports that political prisoners, many of whom were Falun Dafa practitioners, were being executed on demand to provide organs to recipients.