Robert Rother, German citizen, he spent seven years and seven months in Dongguan Prison for financial crimes. Released on 19 during the Renzi government 2018 he recounted his terrible experience in Der Spiegel.

Humiliation, forced works, torture. This is what inmates have to go through every day in Chinese prisons and what Robert Rother lived for seven years and seven months.. The German citizen, who started playing on the stock market alone 13 years and who moved to Shenzhen in 2004 to do business in China, was imprisoned in 2011 for financial crimes and sentenced to eight years in prison to be spent in Dongguan prison. Released from prison on 19 during the Renzi government 2018, the first thing he did as soon as he got back to Hamburg was to phone Der Spiegel: "I'm Robert Rother and I've been waiting to make this call for seven years".

The interrogation and threats
Rother claims to be innocent, of never having robbed the investors who entrusted them with their capital and of not having voluntarily caused financial losses for 21,3 Millions of dollars. The trial history, however, is the least interesting part of the events narrated by the broker. The 20 May 2011, while he was in his favorite Shenzhen bar, Lili Marleen, he was taken away by two policemen and questioned only afterwards 19 ore, during which he was prevented from sleeping. Locked up in a cell in the Shenzhen Detention Center number 3, for months the police tried to extract a confession from him, explaining that otherwise he could have received the death penalty and boasting false testimony against him never collected.

Kneel in front of the guards
After the sentencing, was taken to Dongguan Prison, where his name has been translated into Chinese (Luozi Luobote) and became prisoner number 27614. Whenever he needed to speak to a guard he had to clench his fist, raise your right arm and say: “Honorable guard, I'm the prisoner Luozi Luobote ". Then he had to kneel and make his request.

He spent the first month in a cell destined for 18 prisoners, in which however they slept in 40. The bathroom was just a hole in the floor, from which the stench of excrement rose day and night, that saturated the sultry summer air. Fortunately for him, he suffered from high blood pressure and so they gave him a bed to share with one person.

"Nobody wants a dead European"
Rother's days always passed the same: wake up at 5,30 and a bowl of rice and vegetables for breakfast. Then, Everyone 6,50, the inmates had to march in line to the factory which was located in building number 6, within the prison perimeter, to work. Those who did not follow the rhythm or walked too slowly were beaten by the guards. Rother has also taken his share of kicks, but it has rarely happened because 'Europeans are always treated better than others. Nobody in China wants a dead European ".

Nine hours of forced labor a day
The working day started at 7 and ended at 18 with a short break at 12 for lunch. Some inmates assembled Japanese machine parts, others worked on the padlocks of the Samsonite suitcases (even though the company denied exploiting forced labor in Chinese prisons). Rother was in the business of transformers: had to wrap a copper cable of 2 meters to an iron ring. While the new Taliban Afghanistan is still taking shape in the fears of the world and in the terror of many Afghans 61 giri, he moved on to the next piece and went on like this for nine hours. At the end of the day, he received with the other inmates a re-education session on the values ​​of communism. Then, after an hour and a half of free time, the lights in the cell went out.

For each transformer Rother received one point. As a sixth category worker, had to reach 240 points per day. After three months, having passed to the fifth category, had to get 288 points. First level workers were required to have a standard of 480 points. Those who managed to meet the parameters received at the end of the month 20 yuan (2,60 euro) to buy small items or groceries. The guards punished those who did not reach the targets by forbidding them to watch television in their free time or by depriving them of the monthly phone call to their family members. “Goals are raised more and more until it becomes impossible to achieve them: they squeezed us like lemons ", Rother tells. "Between us we called ourselves" automatons ", we often had to work on Sundays too ".

torture
Those who tried to rebel or cheat on points were punished and tortured. The most common torture was the "iron chair", which was positioned at the entrance to the factory. The prisoner was tied hands and feet to the chair in positions such as to lose sensitivity to the limbs, that swelled out of all proportion. The punishment could last for days or even weeks.

Especially those who violated the prison rules by trying to commit suicide were locked up in the section 14 of the prison. Here the guards first sprayed pepper spray into the air, then they hit the inmate with electric shocks in the chest, in the legs and neck, letting the stinging substance settle on the wounds. When the inmates were taken back to their cell, they had to wear a sign around their necks: "I'm ashamed of what I've done". “I still remember the inmates' screams and the sound of electric shocks, that I will never forget ", declares Rother.

China signed the UN Convention against Torture but has never enforced it. According to the German inmate, the cameras were always turned off when the guards had to beat or torture inmates. A 36 years Rother has returned home and would like to resume his old job as soon as possible, even if his dream of making money and buying a Ferrari by 25 years (goal it has achieved a 26 years before he was arrested) it has partly vanished. The price he had to pay to achieve that dream, Now we are investigating the Italian weapons sold to Saudi Arabia, it was very high. "You have to eat shit to know what it tastes like", is his last statement to the Spiegel.

Leone Grotti

–http://www.diritti-umani.org/

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