(Minghui.org) A resident of Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, was subjected to various forms of abuse while serving two and a half years for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Liu Cuimei was released on September 2, 2019. Below is what she had endured during her incarceration.
Tortured in Detention
Ms. Liu was arrested on March 3, 2017, when she and three other Falun Gong practitioners were telling people in a village about Falun Gong. The police ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong-related materials.
Ms. Liu was taken to Jinzhou Women's Detention Center following her arrest. Two inmates slapped her in the face and hit her in the head, face, and ears with shoes. One of the inmates, Dong Han, also scratched her face.
Ms. Liu's head, face, and neck were covered with bruises, and she had multiple injuries on her body. She could not sleep for several days because of the pain. The scratches on her face remain visible today.
Ms. Liu refused to memorize the detention center rules as required by the guards. Guard Jia Xue threatened to torture her if she did not follow the order.
One day, Ms. Liu was beaten by two inmates for not counting numbers loudly enough. She was also handcuffed in a fixed position for seven days. One cellmate was petrified after witnessing the torture she suffered. The guards thus transferred Ms. Liu to another cell that was overseen by the same guard.
On her first day in the new cell, Ms. Liu was handcuffed between breakfast and 9 p.m. She was denied lunch and dinner. Her arms and hands swelled up.
One day, Ms. Liu was taken to the guards' office. Two inmates pushed her down to the floor and kicked her in the head. One inmate hit her in the face and hand with a water bottle. This inmate also pulled her hair hard. Another inmate said, “I’ve wanted to beat you for a long time.”
Tortured in Prison
On March 6, 2018, the day Ms. Liu was transferred to Liaoning Province Women's Prison, several inmates pushed her down on the ground, stripped off her clothes, and put the prison uniform on her. The next day, she was assigned to No. 12 Ward, a special unit dedicated to persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.
Beaten and Injected with Unknown Drugs
Ms. Liu was assigned to room 2104. She was forced to squat and beaten in the head by inmates, mainly Guan Cui and Yu Xiumei, that first evening.
On March 8, 2018, she was forced to stand facing the wall for the whole day. Her hands became swollen. When she moved her hands a little bit to increase blood circulation, several inmates came over, held her down on the floor, pulled her hair, and kicked her in the head and ears. She had ringing in her ears afterward.
After the beatings, the inmates didn't allow Ms. Liu to use the restroom for 15 hours. She went on a hunger strike on March 10 to protest the abuse.
The guards carried her on a stretcher to the prison hospital a few days later. They cuffed her to the bed and injected her with unknown drugs multiple times a day. When her arm became swollen from the injections, the prison doctor began to inject the drugs into her feet. She was force-fed two weeks later.
More Torture in 2018
Ms. Liu was taken back to No. 12 Ward after she stopped the hunger strike. The guards took away her daily necessities and didn't allow her to take showers or change clothes.
The inmates continued to torture her when she refused to follow the prison rules. They forced her to squat, hit her in the head, and slammed her head against a wall.
Ms. Liu was forced to sit on a “small stool” between 6:30 pm and 8 pm every day from June 21 to June 25. While she sat, inmate Guan Cui beat her in the head, face, and back with a fly swatter.
Ms. Liu was forced to squat the whole day from July 5 through July 10. On July 11, she stood up because she could no longer squat. She was badly beaten by inmate Yu Xiumei and gagged with a towel when she shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!”
She tried to see the head guard of her unit about the torture but was always told the head guard was away. After this incident, she was made to stand for more than ten days, starting at 7 am to the early evening, and then forced to sit on a small stool until past 9 pm. Her legs and feet swelled as a result.
On July 23, after Ms. Liu used the restroom in the early afternoon, inmate Yu Xiumei claimed that the restroom was for prisoners only and demanded that Ms. Liu admit that she was a prisoner. Ms. Liu was hit in the face when she refused. She was beaten so hard in the late afternoon that she could not chew and felt pain when drinking water. She lost three teeth later on.
On another occasion, Ms. Liu was not allowed to go to the restroom and was forced to wet her pants. She went on a hunger strike to protest the torture. Since the incident, she had been forced to sit on a small stool in the evening before going to bed.
Tortured in 2019 for Refusing to Be “Transformed”
On May 13, 2019, Ms. Liu failed to report to the routine roll call at 9 pm because of a headache and fever. While the guard on duty did not take her absence seriously, inmate Liu Qinan punished her by making her sit on a small stool for two days in a row, on May 14 and May 15.
On July 13, Ms. Liu was told by inmate Liu Qinan to write a guarantee statement to state that she had been “transformed,” i.e., to renounce her faith in Falun Gong. When she refused, she was tortured physically and psychologically. She complained of the torture to the captain of the No. 2 Guard Team but did not receive a response.
On July 16, another practitioner, Ms. Wu Jinping, reported the torture Ms. Liu had suffered to a prison director. Ms. Wu was punished and relocated as a result.
Ms. Liu was released on September 2, 2019.
