(Minghui.org) A Chongqing resident was subjected to various forms of abuse while serving a three-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Ren Xianglian, 66, was arrested in July 2016 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police interrogated her but she refused to reveal where she got the materials. Instead, she explained what Falun Gong is all about and why the persecution doesn’t have any legal basis.
The police also attempted to force Ms. Ren to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. When she refused to do so, they prepared a copy and ordered her to sign it, promising to release her afterwards. Ms. Ren, not knowing the content of the document, signed the statement as required by the police, only to realize that she was deceived by them.
Ms. Ren was held at Yiwanshui Detention Center for one year and three months, during which time she was forced to do unpaid labor every day. She was later secretly sentenced to three years and fined 8,000 yuan by the Yubei District Court. Her appeal to the Chongqing City No. 1 Intermediate Court was rejected.
Ms. Ren was transferred to the Chongqing City Women’s Prison in October 2017. Every Falun Gong practitioner imprisoned there was monitored by two inmates. She wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone, especially to another Falun Gong practitioner, or even look at them.
The guards ordered Ms. Ren to write a thought report every day. If they didn’t approve of it, she had to write it again. They wouldn’t allow her to sleep if they weren’t satisfied with her thought report.
Ms. Ren was also subjected to brainwashing, deprivation of restroom use, and being forced to hand-copy and memorize the prison rules.
After she developed high blood pressure due to the abuse, the guards forced Ms. Ren to take an unknown drug, which didn’t bring down her blood pressure but caused swelling in her feet.
During a prison-wide meeting on November 18, 2018, Ms. Ren was pushed to the ground and suffered a broken bone in her wrist. The prison ordered her to cover more than 70% of the medical costs herself.
Her pension was suspended between March 2018 and June 2019. She returned home on July 12, 2019.
Related report:
Chongqing Woman Secretly Sentenced to Prison, Denied Family Visits
