(Minghui.org) For practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Yang Wenxiu was tortured, injected and forced to imbibe unknown drugs multiple times during her more than two years of imprisonment in Gansu Province Women’s Prison.
Ms. Yang, in her 60s, is a resident of Baiyin City, Gansu Province. She took up Falun Gong in 1997, at the recommendation of a friend, when she had reached the limits of her endurance due to serious long-term illnesses. She recovered from her illnesses after three months of practicing Dafa. For not giving up her belief, howevre, she was detained twice, including for one and a half years of forced labor, beginning in 2006.
She was sentenced to three years in prison after being arrested in September 2014. She was incarcerated in Gansu Province Women’s Prison on April 7, 2015, and released on September 18, 2017. Torture left her bedridden for a long time after her release.
Drug Abuse
On the day of Ms. Yang’s arrival at the prison, on April 7, 2015, guards forced her to take unknown drugs, claiming that she had high blood pressure. She shivered that night.
She told the guards that she might be allergic to the drugs since she had a history of allergy to many kinds of medicine. However, the guards continued to force her to take the drugs for more than five months.
Ms. Yang was injected with an unknown drug through one of her finger tips in May 2015. That finger soon became bruised and cold, and half of her body became numb shortly afterward.
Later, she was diagnosed with anemia and hospitalized in the prison hospital for three days. She was given unknown pills, and two bottles of black liquid drugs twice a day. She was also given injections and IV drips during those three days, which made her dizzy, and her body weakened more each day.
She was administered and injected with unknown drugs after returning to her cell. Once, she spit out the pill and threw it on the ground, and the inmate assigned to monitor her reported her to a guard. They found the pill and forced her to take it. They threatened to shock her with electric batons if she did it again.
The guards continued giving her unknown drugs. The inmates were ordered to give her the drugs with just a sip of water.
Humiliation
When Ms. Yang refused to renounce her faith after being imprisoned for five months, inmate Yuan Qiaohui wrote the name of the founder of Falun Gong on Ms. Yang’s underwear, tables and stools as a form of humiliation and psychological torture. The inmates also spit in her face and kicked her in the groin.
When she spilled her soup during mealtime, Yuan and another inmate forced her to drink the water squeezed from the cloth she used to clean the floor. The inmates also forced her to swallow chicken bones.
Once, Yuan stepped on Ms. Yang’s meal plate twice to deprive her of food. She also forced Ms. Yang to drink her own urine in the restroom, and wiped feces onto her mouth. She threatened to kill Ms. Yang’s whole family because she refused to give up her faith.
Brainwashing and Mental Abuse
To force practitioners to renounce Falun Gong, inmates tried to abuse practitioners mentally. Under tremendous fear and distress, Ms. Yang was forced to swear at Falun Gong and its founder at least 50 times a day before being allowed to eat or sleep.
The guard in charge of Ms. Yang’s ward pressured her son when he visited his mother. Her son left the prison crying every time and made Ms. Yang sad. The lead guard hoped that Ms. Yang's son would persuade her to give up her faith.
When Ms. Yang did not renounce Falun Gong after six months of brainwashing, the prison director angrily threatened her with punishment, including transfering her to a solitary cell, handcuffing and shackling her, and taking her to a brainwashing center under the auspice of the 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong.
The guards also forced practitioners to watch videos defaming Falun Gong every morning, then write thought reports in the afternoon, to be turned in by 10:00 p.m. Those who didn’t turn in the reports would be subjected to electric shocks.
Physical Abuse
During some nights, inmate Yuan poured cold water on Ms. Yang’s bed cover and forced her to sleep on it. Twice a day, she poured hot water into Ms. Yang’s clothes from her neck.
Once, Yuan dragged Ms. Yang into a room, where she kicked and punched her. She pushed her so hard that her head hit the steel frame in the room and bled.
One summer night of 2015, a guard and many inmates surrounded Ms. Yang and another practitioner, shouting and cursing at them. Ms. Yang was forced to squat through the whole night until 6:00 a.m.
Harassment After Release
When Ms. Yang was released on September 18, 2017, she was bedridden and on the brink of death, unable to eat, drink or talk.
However, officials from the local residential committee often went to her home to harass her. She was ordered to report to the local police station every three months for five years after her release, even though she had no strength to go anywhere.
