(Minghui.org) An elderly woman in Tianjin was dealt one blow after another in the past eleven months. Her 50-year-old daughter was arrested on December 28, 2017, for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a mind-body cultivation practice being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
Her husband, a cancer patient, saw his health quickly decline upon their daughter's arrest. He died in March 2018.
Her brother, a widower who had relied on her daughter to take care of him, was so traumatized by his niece's arrest that he became bedridden and was sent to a nursing home days before his brother-in-law died.
While mourning her husband's death and worrying about her brother, Ms. Shu Yufen is calling for the release of her daughter, Ms. Xu Xueli, who was given criminal detention on February 2, 2018, and is now facing indictment for her faith. Ms. Xu had previously been imprisoned for eight years, during which time she was repeatedly drugged and tortured.
Father Dies Months After Daughter's Latest Arrest
Ms. Xu was most recently arrested on December 28, 2017. Officers from Beichen Police Department confiscated from her home over 45,000 yuan, which had been saved for her father's medical bills. Ms. Xu's own money and her uncle's money were also taken away. The uncle's ID and medical insurance card were confiscated as well.
Two officers from Tianmu Police Station called her parents, Ms. Shu and Mr. Xu Wenda, on January 24, 2018, asking them to visit the police station. Once there, Ms. Shu was interrogated and coerced into giving evidence incriminating her daughter. The police also grabbed her arm to press her fingerprints on the interrogation records. “You are breaking the law!” she protested angrily, to no avail.
Her husband, a stomach cancer patient, was disturbed after witnessing what was happening to his wife. Out of fear, he helped the officers hold down his wife to obtain her fingerprint. Upon returning home, he realized he had helped the police to frame his innocent daughter, and he was very regretful.
He contacted the police many times afterward, trying to clarify that he helped them secure his wife's fingerprints because he was under tremendous pressure. No officers responded to him.
The mental anguish and guilt weighed him down. His health declined day by day, and he was hospitalized in March 2018 to treat his ascites. As the police refused to return the confiscated money, he had to stop chemotherapy and move to another hospital for minimally invasive surgery that was more affordable. He passed away several days after the hospital transfer. His daughter wasn't allowed to see him for one last time.
With Niece Detained, Uncle Ends Up in Nursing Home
Ms. Xu's uncle, 70-year-old Mr. Shu Yumin, lived by himself. His wife and only child both passed away, and his niece took care of him.
After Ms. Xu was arrested, her uncle was so terrified that he pointed in the direction that she had been taken away and kept saying “ahh” but could not utter a complete sentence. He soon lost his speech completely and became bedridden.
With his money, medical insurance card, and ID card all taken away by police, he wasn't able to receive medical attention in a timely manner. By the time he reapplied for a new insurance card and checked into a hospital on February 21, 2018, he was already in critical condition. He was sent to a nursing home as soon as he was discharged from the hospital on March 2.
Latest Ordeal Evokes Memories of Past Harrowing Experience
While Mr. Shu spends his days alone in the nursing home, his sister, Ms. Shu, worries about her daughter, Ms. Xu, who had been brutally tortured in her previous eight years of imprisonment.
Ms. Xu credits Falun Gong for curing her heart disease and hepatitis and for saving her marriage. After the Chinese communist regime launched its campaign against Falun Gong in July 1999, she was detained 5 or 6 times for her belief in that year alone.
After she was arrested in October 2005, She was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment on January 20, 2006. Her employer terminated her job later that year. Under stress and financial burden, her husband divorced her on July 11, 2011.
As a result of abuse in prison, Ms. Xu was in life-threatening condition numerous times. Three months prior to her release, she developed heart disease and was given IV infusions. When the unknown drugs entered her bloodstream, she felt as if her head would explode. Her health worsened, but the guards kept forcing her to take the medicine. Fearful of the unknown drugs and the pain they caused, Ms. Xu sometimes dared not drink water given by inmates, as the water clearly had sediment in it.
Ms. Xu was released on September 25, 2013, and she weighed only 84 pounds. She had symptoms of a severe mental breakdown and felt that there was a camera in her head. She did not dare to look at things and felt as if something was crawling over her body. She was constantly tense and felt frightened every day.
With care from family members and her resuming practice of Falun Gong, Ms. Xu gradually recovered and was able to take care of her uncle.
Now that she is in detention, the reunited family is once again broken and left in disarray.
Related Reports:
Practitioners Tortured to the Point of Mental Collapse in Tianjin Women's Prison
Tianjin Prisons’ Systematic Use of Drugs in Persecution of Falun Gong
