(Minghui.org) A woman in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to four years shortly after she was arrested for writing letters to her local police chief, urging him not to participate in the persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
After she was released on September 10, 2019, Ms. Wang Wenjuan recounted how she was tortured in prison.
Two Arrests in Under Two Months
My younger sister Ms. Wang Wenjing, my mother Ms. Cheng Yanping, and I filed criminal complaints on July 9, 2015, against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime, for initiating the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.
The police arrested us on July 22, 2015. They ransacked my home and confiscated my Falun Gong books, my computers, and other personal belongings.
Although my mother was released shortly afterward, my sister and I were held in custody for another 15 days.
I went back to Dongfeng Police Station in late August and delivered two letters to the police chief, hoping he and his officers could understand what Falun Gong is and why the persecution is illegal. I also urged him to return the items the police had confiscated from me.
Because of those letters, I was arrested again, on September 10, 2015.
In the Harbin City No.2 Detention Center, the guards ordered the inmates to strip search me. The head of the cell, Tiantian, assigned one inmate to monitor me, saying, “You can beat her and slap her in the face if she crosses her legs or closes her eyes.”
The guards also ordered me to recite the prison rules. I refused to comply and was forced to squat for hours and deprived of sleep.
The guards restricted the time I could use the restroom. I was only given three minutes for a bowel movement and one minute to urinate. The inmates watched me relieve myself and pulled me from the pit toilet when the time was up. Because of the stress, I wasn't able to have a bowel movement for nearly two weeks.
I was tried in the Shuangcheng District Court on November 19 and sentenced to four years on December 29, 2015.
I appealed the verdict to the Harbin Intermediate Court. Two judges from the appeals court visited me three months later and asked me to drop the appeal.
“It's useless for you to appeal. We will uphold the sentence anyway. You are just wasting your money,” they said.
“But it is a wrongful sentence,” I replied.
“There’s nothing we can do. That's the rule in all Falun Gong cases.”
After my appeal was rejected, I was sent to Heilongjiang Women's Prison.
Several guards took me to a dark room with no surveillance camera and interrogated me. They hit me when I refused to answer their questions.
Because I refused to write statements to renounce Falun Gong, four inmates watched me around the clock. They forced me to sit on a small stool without moving from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and would beat me if I closed my eyes, dozed off, or leaned forward.
I began to have high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat.
Before I was released, against my will, I was forced to sign a pre-written statement to renounce Falun Gong and to copy a thought report slandering Falun Gong.
