E/CN.4/1993/26 page 30 94. Pen Yuzhang, a retired professor of Hunan University, was arrested in mid-June 1989 and taken to Changsha No. 1 jail. During his imprisonment he was reportedly placed for about three months on a device known as the "shackle board" - a horizontal plank roughly the size of a door, equipped with metal shackles at the four corners and a large hole at the lower end. The prisoner is laid upwards on the board, and his hands and feet are secured by the four shackles. The hole allows the prisoner to perform basic bodily functions. 95. The Government informed that Pen Yuzhang, male, an employee of Hunan University, was taken into custody by the Changsha municipal public security bureau for taking part in the 1989 riots, but was later released. 96. Zhou Zhirong was sentenced in 1990 to seven years' imprisonment and sent to Longxi prison. On 12 February 1991 he was transferred to a solitary confinement punishment unit at Provincial No. 3 prison in Hunan's Lingling prefecture. Once there, he was reportedly put on a "shackle board" and kept there for a full three months. 97. The Government reported that Zhou Zhirong, from Anxiang county in Hunan province, was sentenced on 29 March 1990 by the Hunan provincial people's intermediate court to five years' imprisonment and stripped of his political rights for two years for breach of the criminal law. 98. Fan Zhong, arrested at the end of June 1989, was held in Changsha No. 2 jail where he was reportedly given repeated shocks by an electric baton to sensitive parts of the body. He was also put on the "shackle board". 99. The Government reported that Fan Zhong was taken into custody by the public security bureau for taking part in the riots in 1989, but was later released. 100. Chen Gang, a worker at the Xiangtan Electrical Machinery Factory, was convicted in June 1989 and allegedly kept shackled hand and foot for a 10-month period. 101. The Government reported that Chen Gang, male, was sentenced to death, suspended for two years, in August 1989 for gangsterism by the people's intermediate court in the city of Xiangtan. He is still serving his sentence. 102. In addition to the above-mentioned, the the Government of China six urgent appeals on regarding whom fears were expressed that they The date on which they were sent is mentioned corresponding summary. Special Rapporteur transmitted to behalf of the following persons, might be subjected to torture. in brackets at the end of the 103. Gao Shuxian, a former cadre of the Hengyang Petroleum Company, was arrested in August 1989 in Hengyang and charged with embezzling funds from the company he ran. According to the reports he was held incommunicado for over two years and beaten during interrogation by an investigator from the Hengyang Southern District Procuratorate. As a result, he has reportedly lost the hearing in one of his ears; however, he was not allowed to see a doctor or given any treatment for the injury. His complaints to various local