(Minghui.org) Ms. Xie Jinda from Harbin City was arrested in 2010 for distributing Falun Gong literature and was sentenced to three years in prison. She suffered relentless torture in prison. Her epilepsy, which disappeared after she began practicing Falun Gong, recurred and the condition worsened quickly. The prison authorities had no choice but to release her before she served her full term.
Ms. Xie, 38, had epilepsy since she was young, but the condition gradually went away after she began practicing Falun Gong in 1998. The epilepsy relapsed in 2005 when her husband, who is also a practitioner, was arrested for speaking out about the persecution.
The family thus lost their sole financial support, leaving Ms. Xie to struggle to take care of their young daughter and her in-laws as best she could. When her mother-in-law died in 2008, Ms. Xie's epilepsy relapsed. After her husband was released in 2009, the couple began to practice the Falun Gong exercises together. Ms. Xie's epilepsy went away for the second time.
Ms. Xie was often tortured in Heilongjiang Women's Prison after the 2010 arrest and trial. The prison authorities denied all family visits. Her husband later heard from a prison guard that her epilepsy had recurred. The family asked for her release for medical attention, but were repeatedly denied.
Ms. Xie's condition worsened with increased torture, to the point that she had seizures several times a day. Presumably to avoid taking responsibility, the prison authorities released Ms. Xie 6 months before her scheduled release.
When Ms. Xie returned home in January 2013, her face was bruised and she couldn't remember much of her experience in prison. Her family suspects that she was forced to take nerve damaging drugs in detention. Even now, two years later, she still has not fully recovered her mental faculties.
