(Minghui.org) Refusing to renounce her faith in Falun Gong, a woman was thrown into prison before being told that she had been sentenced to 9 years.
Ms. Liu Shuying of Huadian City, Jilin Province, suffered various forms of torture after her latest arrest in 2010 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation practice persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Liu was released in April 2018 and recounts her horrifying experience below.
Arrested Numerous Times, Tortured in Custody
After the persecution started in 1999, an officer from Songhe Town Police Station confiscated all of my Falun Gong books and forced me to sign a statement to renounce my faith.
I was arrested and detained for two weeks for doing the Falun Gong exercises in public in the summer of 2000. A month later, the police put me in Fusong County Detention Center for 35 days after I tried to explain the persecution of Falun Gong to them.
A guard in the detention center tricked me into telling him the name of the practitioner who made the Falun Gong materials I had. A few days later, the practitioner was brought in front of me. His hands were cuffed behind his back, he could barely stand, and his lips were torn.
This terrified and saddened me, as I did not intend for this to happen. The guards didn’t spare me either, as they beat me with heavy boots. They then cuffed me to the window frames and did not even let me down when I had to relieve myself.
Violently Force-Fed
The police arrested me when I went to Beijing to see central government officials about the persecution in January 2001.
They transferred me back home and locked me in Shuidian Detention Center. I went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary detention. The guards held me down, pried my mouth open, and inserted a tube into my stomach. When the tube was removed, it was covered in blood.
A month later, I was given one year in Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp, where the guards relentlessly beat and force-fed me again.
Near-Death Experience in Heizuizi Women’s Prison
My most recent arrest took place when the local police charged into my home at night on October 26, 2010. They ransacked my place to search for Falun Gong books and related materials.
I was locked in a metal cage inside the Minghua Street Police Station and tied to a “tiger bench.” They interrogated me until early the next morning. A few hours later, I was taken directly to Jilin Detention Center. I had to do intensive labor, such as picking corn kernels and folding joss paper (money to be burned for the dead), which contained toxic materials.
After two years of detention, the authorities secretly sentenced me to 9 years in prison. I had no idea of the heavy sentence until I was transferred to Heizuizi Women’s Prison in 2012.
Below are some of the torture I suffered in the prison.
1. Hair Pulled So Hard that Scalp Separated from Skull
The guards often instigated and rewarded other prisoners to torture me and intimidate me into giving up my faith. These inmates once pulled my hair to hurt me. I lost bundles of hair as I struggled, and my scalp was separated from the skull.
2. Two Months on Death Bed
An inmate put me on the “death bed,” where my limbs were stretched out in a spread-eagle manner and restrained for 24 hours a day. My arms and legs stiffened, and my ankles constantly rubbed against the bed, which led to excruciating pain. They assaulted me whenever I closed my eyes. I was given little food. This lasted two months, and as a result, the flesh on my ankles festered, and I developed bedsores on my back.
3. Humiliation and Other Mental Abuses
The inmates dragged me to brainwashing sessions and cuffed me to a table there when I refused to cooperate. Not wanting me to disrupt the session, the inmates carried me back to my cell and cuffed me to the upper bunk of the bed so that I stayed hanging.
My strained shoulders and wrists suffered sharp pain. I wasn’t allowed to use the toilet and had to urinate in my pants. I wasn’t allowed to change clothes, so my feet were soaked in the urine. Over time, my feet became infected and my toes blackened.
The prisoners once tried to strip me and take nude photos of me.
They also played loud propaganda videos that slandered Falun Gong every day. An inmate would beat me into submission and stick my face in front of the television while prying my eyes open.
4. Waterboarding
Every day for a month, the inmates would push my head into a bucket filled with water until I stopped struggling. They kicked me until I couldn’t get up anymore. This went on for a month, and the handcuffs cut into my flesh because of the violent struggle.
5. Buttocks Fester After Sitting Still for Long Periods of Time
I was punished to sit on a stool way smaller than my bottom, such that most of my weight was concentrated on a small part of my buttocks. After a while, the flesh of my buttocks ruptured and festered as it had no chance to heal.
They switched my punishment to standing from 5 a.m. to almost midnight. After a month, my legs were painful and visibly swollen.
I was then put on a wooden bed without anything warm in winter days. The guards woke me up once an hour during the night.
Related reports:
Ms. Liu Shuying Released After Seven Years of Illegal Imprisonment
Seven Falun Gong Practitioners from Huadian City Detained for Over Two Years
