(Minghui.org) Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison is located in Nangang District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. Numerous Falun Gong practitioners have been mistreated in this prison. Many practitioners died or were disabled due to the torture.
Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison
1. The crimes committed by Wang Shanshan, head of No. 9 Ward
Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in the No. 9 Ward or No. 11 Ward of the Heilongjiang Women's Prison. Wang Shanshan is the head of the No.9 Ward and in charge of brainwashing practitioners. Under her instigation, the prisoners viciously abused the detained practitioners. They restricted practitioners' freedom of movement, so that practitioners even needed permission to go to the restroom. Practitioners were only allowed 10 minutes to eat.
As a form of torture, each practitioner was ordered to sit stiff and upright without moving on a small stool for more than 20 hours a day. The practitioners' hands had to be kept on top of their knees at all times, and their backs had to be straight. They were not allowed to close their eyes. Many practitioners' bottoms were injured due to long hours of sitting this way, and they suffered extreme pain in their backs. While being subjected to this form of torture, practitioners were scolded by the prisoners, who had been promised that their terms would be reduced for persecuting practitioners.
Torture Re-enactment: Sitting on a small stool for long hours
Practitioners who refused to be brainwashed were taken to another cell across the hallway, where conditions were even worse. More than 30 people were detained in a room only 50 square meters in size. Time for washing oneself and personal hygiene was limited to only 5 to 10 minutes each day. Only 20 minutes each week were allocated to washing clothes. Each day, the practitioners were forced to sit upright without moving on a small bench for prolonged hours.
Wang Shanshan often walked around to check the ward and instigated and encouraged the prisoners to continue persecuting the practitioners.
2. Persecution experiences of Ms. Wang Jianhui
Ms. Wang Jianhui, 41, worked at Daqing General Hospital. She was illegally arrested at work on February 28, 2010, and was sentenced to eight years in jail by the Shaertu District Court. The sentence was later reduced to six years, after she appealed to the Daqing City Intermediate Court. She was sent to the No.11 Ward of the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison on August 25, 2010.
Ms. Wang described the persecution that she was subjected to in the prison as follows:
Because I refused to be brainwashed, as a form of torture, I was forced to sit on a small stool in a military posture from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day. While sitting for 16 hours, I was not allowed to move around. Whenever I tried to stand up due to the pain in my bottom, I was kicked and punched several times by prisoner Wang Fengcun. In addition, she often scolded me using extremely dirty words. When I was first sent to the No.11 Ward, I was brutally beaten by two prisoners, including Cui Xiang, because I refused to cooperate with name polling. The guards just stood aside and let the prisoners beat me viciously. I was detained in the No.11 Ward for nearly half a year.
I was transferred to the No.4 Ward on February 22, 2011. I was beaten again in the No.4 Ward, because I practiced the [Falun Gong] exercises. One afternoon at the beginning of April 2011, as I practiced the exercises in the cell, prisoners Guo Haiying, An Xiaoxia and Yie Meili came up and punched and kicked me. They covered my head with a cotton bed cover and punched it, causing a big bump on my head. They also held me down to the cold floor and kicked me. Guo Haiying even slammed my head against the metal bed frame. They tortured me continually for more than two hours.
On the afternoon of February 27, 2012, because I refused to wear the prison uniform, guards Zhao Xiaofan, Li Jingjing and Chen Liping ordered more than 10 prisoners to beat me.
Sun Chao hit my body and the backs of my hands with a big, stiff broom. The backs of my hands became purple and swollen, and my wrists were covered with huge bloody welts. Shang Xiaoyan kept kicking my stomach. Yi Xiaohua continually punched my head. They dragged me into a cell and continued to beat me. They forcefully removed my sweater and put the prison uniform on me. They sewed the uniform to my underwear so that I would not be able to remove it.
On the evening of February 29, 2012, because I refused to wear the prison uniform, four prisoners Yuan Cunqiu, An Xiaoxia, Li Dongmei, and Hong Peng took turns beating me. Yuan Cunqiu viciously kicked the bottom of my back, which caused me so much pain that I wasn't even able to lay down. An Xiaoxia beat me until her hands became numb, and then she picked up her sleeper to slash my head. Li Dongmei viciously punched my head. The four of them beat and scolded me around 8 p.m. every day from February 26 to 29.
After March 1, 2012, the head of the ward arranged three prisoners to watch me. Whenever I tried to remove the prison uniform, Ma Guirong and Hu Jinying would beat me and scold me.
3. Practitioners are tortured in the prison hospital
Practitioners Wei Yun and Liu Zhongmin were taken to the prison hospital's admission department and were forcibly subjected to brainwashing in the isolated environment.
Prisoner Meng Jia and others tortured and beat them. They were hung up with ropes or were forced to sit on small plastic stools for long hours. They were tortured until they were seriously injured, and their eyes were red. There are several rooms in the hospital admission department, and all of them are hidden and easily sealed off; thus, the perpetrators use them for enforced brainwashing.
4. Ms. Chen Jihuan's suffering
Ms. Chen Jihuan, 58, is a farmer from Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province. She was arrested on November 30, 2009, while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong in Fumin Village. Later she was illegally sentenced to four years in prison by the Yilan County Court.
She was first sent to the No.11 Ward on June 23, 2010. She was forced to sit still on a small plastic stool every day from 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. When she loudly called out, "Falun Dafa is good!" Cui Xiang punched her face six times. Then her mouth was sealed with tape, and she was tied to a bed for four days and four nights. She was also forced to watch video programs that slander Falun Gong. On March 23, 2011, she was transferred to the No.4 Ward.
