(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wei Jun was sentenced to five years in prison in 2008 and is being held in the Tenth Ward of Heilongjiang Women's Prison. She has been beaten frequently and lost all feeling below the waist twice as a result of persecution. She has numbness in her fingers, suffers from dermatitis and her body is extremely itchy. Prison officials have denied her family visitation rights.
Repeatedly arrested and subjected to forced labor
Ms. Wei, 50, is a Chinese teacher in a middle school in Daqing City and lives in Hongwei Village, Daqing, Heilongjiang Province. She was arrested on February 27, 2000 when she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong and was detained for three and a half months. On November 27, 2000, she was subjected to one year of forced labor in the Heilongjiang Rehabilitation Center, and was then sentenced to an additional three years of forced labor on September 11, 2001.
Officers from the Babaixiang Police Department and Daqing Domestic Security Division arrested Ms. Wei on August 22, 2008. Officials from the Honggang District Court then sentenced her to five years in Heilongjiang Women's Prison on January 14, 2009.
Cui Xiang, head of the inmates in the 11th Ward of Heilongjiang Women's Prison, had inmates drag Ms. Wei to the ward. Wang Yali, head of the guards in the 11th Ward, then ordered inmates to tie Ms. Wei up and gag her mouth with a towel. Gu Liqun, group leader of the inmates, put Ms. Wei in prison clothes and sprained Ms. Wei's left arm in the process.
When Ms. Wei's family sent money to her through the mail, Wang Yali had the money returned, as she would not allow Ms. Wei to have any money or family visits. In addition, Wang ordered Cui Xiang to encourage inmates to give Ms. Wei a hard time. Chen Ying, an inmate group leader, intentionally delayed Ms. Wei from using the restroom when she desperately needed it.
The guards did not allow Ms. Wei and other practitioners to eat in the cafeteria or buy daily necessaries, and subjected them to brainwashing from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., except for a half-hour meal break in their cells. Some practitioners were forced to sit on a small stool for long periods of time. Their bottoms and hips would develop sores that became infected. When the sores eventually healed, the guards would then start the torture again. This would happen over and over again.
Solitary confinement in the prison hospital
The 10th Ward of Heilongjiang Women's Prison also functions as the prison hospital. Guards use it as a facility to torture practitioners mentally and physically.
At the end of November 2011, guards rounded up more than a dozen practitioners in the prison hospital for an “intensive transformation” program. The practitioners were put in solitary confinement, with several inmates assigned to each cell to monitor them 24 hours a day. All of the windows were covered, and no one was allowed to enter the cell or the ward.
Wang Hong, a guard in the 10th Ward, ordered Ms. Wei and Ms. Liu Zhongmin to go to the third floor, saying that Zhao Huihua, the director of the hospital, wanted to talk to them. Once they left their cell, Wang had Gao Fuyan and other inmates search their belongings and confiscated their Falun Gong books. Both practitioners were taken to the third floor administration office, along with their belongings. They were separated and subjected to brainwashing. Each practitioner was monitored by about six inmates.
The monitors were divided into two groups. They took orders from guards and abused Ms. Wei. They subjected her to brainwashing during the daytime and deprived her of sleep at night. She was only allowed to sleep for three to four hours every few days. They played videos slandering Falun Gong, put headphones over her ears, tied up her hands and forced her to listen to and watch the videos.
Ms. Wei fell asleep one time while she was forced to stand and fell to the ground. Inmates picked her up and forced her to stand again. Her legs were badly swollen, but they still forced her to stand.
The guards did not allow the cell windows to be opened and there was no ventilation in the cell. Ms. Wei developed scabies, which spread all over her body and made her very itchy.
Guo Jia and other inmates monitoring Ms. Wei frequently punched and kicked her. Once Guo hit her so hard that her eye sockets filled with blood.
Failing to get Ms. Wei to renounce her belief
The guards moved Ms. Wei to a room located on the second floor of the hospital around December 15, 2011. Three weeks passed, and she still patiently clarified the facts about Falun Gong to the warden, guards, inmates and whoever else was there.
Zhao Huihua ordered guards and inmates to have Ms. Wei renounce her belief by the third day before the Chinese New Year. From January 19 through to January 21, Zhao supervised the proceedings. Guards Ma Ping, Geng Xiuli and Geng Chun led inmates Gao Fuyan, Guo Jia and Zhang Fangqing, as they hung up Ms. Wei and beat her.
Ms. Wei was moved to the in-patient section on the second floor a month later. She was still under strict surveillance and no one was allowed any contact with her.
One night in early 2012, Gao Fuyan, Zhang Fangqing, Guo Jia and a group of inmates brutally beat Ms. Wei for a long time. Zhang kicked her repeatedly. Her chest was injured and she had bruises and cuts all over her body. She was bed-ridden for several days afterwards.
The prison authorities launched another wave of persecution on April 22, 2012. Zhao Huihua and guard Zhao Xiaofan instigated Li Haibo and other inmates to forcibly dress Ms. Wei in clothes printed with the word “prisoner.” Gao Fuyan repeatedly slapped her in the face every day, dragged her around and threw her to the ground. Gao even stripped off her pants.