Ms. Liu Guifu is one of the very few Falun Gong practitioners released from prison, due to family publicity and international investigations, and allowed to leave China. She and her family remain under pressure.
Ms Sun Fengjie's health has dramatically declined in prison, due to hanging tortures, the administration of unknown drugs, and beatings from criminal inmates incited by guards.
Ms. Zhang Shujun Dies as Result of Torture in Jiangxi Province
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Shujun, 47, lived in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province. After the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal to the government several times. Because she tried to clarify the truth, she was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again in March 2006 and charged with producing truth clarifying materials. The Qingyunpu District Court in Nanchang City sentenced her to ten years in prison. She was imprisoned at the Jiangxi Province Women's Prison located in Xinjian County, Nanchang City. She endured numerous brutal tortures while she was incarcerated, and her friends and family were not allowed to visit her.
On January 4, 2008, Ms. Zhang was paralyzed and in critical condition. Guards called her family and instructed them to pick her up from the prison hospital - Changzheng Hospital. She was thus "bailed out for medical treatment" on the verge of death. Only 16 days later, Ms. Zhang died in her home at around 3 a.m. on January 20, 2008.
Jiangxi Province Women's Prison: 86-791-3711686
Guard Liu Ying (female): 86-13879160636 (Cell)
Ms. Liu Guifu Sent to Forced Labor Camp Twice and Now in Exile Overseas
Former Beijing resident Ms. Liu Guifu was sent to forced labor camps twice for her practicing Falun Gong. With the help of many righteous people and international pressure, she was released on August 31, 2007, and is now overseas.
When Ms. Liu Guifu was detained in the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp, the guards forced her to take unidentified drugs, did not allow her to sleep, made her sit in one position for more than 20 hours at a time, forced her to stand for long periods of time, and beat and mentally tortured her. Her daughter in the U.S. tried every way she could to rescue her mother, and many Americans helped her. U.S. Falun Gong practitioners notified the United Nations about Liu Guifu's case. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Mr. Nowak, asked to see her during his visit to the Beijing Women's Labor Camp, but his request was turned down.
Due to international pressure, Ms Liu Guifu was transferred from the "attack team" to the group training team, and her family was allowed to visit. They also improved her meals. Although the physical torture was reduced, the mental torture became even more severe. Besides using criminal inmates to isolate and watch her closely, those in charge frequently put her in solitary confinement. Even as she endured this treatment, she asked that the group training team improve other practitioners' meals as well as her own and strove to improve other practitioners' situations.
In order to detain Ms. Liu Guifu for a longer time and delay her release, those in charge altered the record of the date she began her sentence. A few months before her release, they stopped the physical abuse and her meals improved, so that she would not appear to be badly abused. Even so, she was still very thin and weak, her hair white and her face full of wrinkles.
Liu Guifu was sentenced to forced labor twice and was brutally persecuted because she refused to give up cultivating Falun Gong. In February 2001, she was sentenced to 18 months of forced labor. On February 28, 2005, the police illegally arrested her again from her home in Beijing. Even though they only found two flyers in her home, they claimed that they had found more than 20, so she was sentenced to two and a half years of forced labor. While detained, she was not allowed any contact with other practitioners who were there. Soon after her arrival, she was transferred from the 7th team to the "attack team", and she was isolated and closely watched.
On August 16, 2005, after numerous requests, her family was finally allowed to see her. They could not even recognize her. Her weight had dropped from more than 70 kg to less than 50 kg. Her hair was totally white, her face full of wrinkles, and her movements were very slow. She looked like she had aged 20 years. She told her family, "They did not allow me to sleep and forced me to stand every day. In the beginning they allowed me rest from midnight until 4 a.m., but later it was changed to 2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. They also force-fed me a capsuled drug. After I took it, I would vomit sour, black fluid." Her family members questioned guard Song Lili, "She was not sick. Why did you force her to take drugs?" Song Lili was flustered and just repeatedly said that it was not poison.
Falun Gong practitioners from the U.S., Canada and Europe put in a lot of effort to rescue Ms Liu Guifu. Her family members also adamantly demanded to visit her. During their visits, they saw the extent of the persecution and sued guard Song Lili. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) also put the case on record to investigate.
Placed under severe international pressure, the labor camp authorities were forced to respond. They acknowledged that they refused to allow Liu Guifu to practice Falun Gong in the camp and that they considered her a "the key person" to manage. But they also declared that guard Song Lili and four inmates did not "beat, insult, physically punish and mistreat" her.
During her detention, Ms. Liu did not compromise her beliefs. She repeatedly asked for her case to be reconsidered and insisted in having her human rights respected. After she was released from the camp, the police still monitored her and constantly harassed her.
Liu Guifu has suffered from many kinds of persecution, and her life was in great danger. On December 29, 2007, she was able to leave China to an undisclosed location.
Ms. Sun Fengjie Barbarically Tortured at Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison
Ms. Sun Fengjie is a 51-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province. She was forcefully taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison on September 18, 2003, where she was tortured at the Training Ward for over three years. In 2006, she was transfered to the 2nd Ward. At the Training Ward, Ms. Sun Fengjie was barbarically tortured many times by Warden Lu Jinghua (female). Ms. Sun Fengjie was once hung up for a long time, which resulted in loss of consciousness. She was also injected with unknown drugs. At present she sporadically loses vision in one of her eyes.
In November 2005, Lu Jinghua incited criminal inmates to handcuff Ms. Sun Fengjie for 4 whole days. On December 20, 2005, Ms. Sun Fengjie was tied up and hung up by Lu Jinghua once again for 14 days. Lu Jinghua handcuffed Ms. Sun Fengjie behind her back and used a rope to hang her, causing her to be unable to stand or squat down. Ms. Sun Fengjie passed out twice. Her life was only preserved when criminal inmates found her and promptly took her down.
On February 16, 2006, Ms. Sun Fengjie was once again handcuffed behind her back and tied to the radiator for several days.
In mid-April 2006, Lu Jinghua led 6 guards into a small classroom on the east side of the fifth floor of the training ward building. Because Ms. Sun had refused to be "transformed," they incited the criminal inmates to brutally beat her. The inmates grabbed Ms. Sun's hair and slammed her head into the wall, then held her down on the ground and forcefully injected her with unknown drugs. They then beat her until she passed out.
This long-term persecution caused the health condition of Mr. Sun Fengjie to become worse and worse.