(Minghui.org) Ms. Du Shuhui, a retired accountant who used to work at the Urban Construction Bureau of Mian County, Shaanxi Province, used to be very ill and had to spend a fortune in medical expenses every year. Within a few months after she began practicing Falun Gong in 1996, her illnesses disappeared and she was very healthy.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Fearful of the practice’s immense popularity, the Chinese Communist Party initiated a nationwide persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.
Over the past 22 years, Ms. Du, of Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, has been illegally detained and spent time in a forced labor camp and prison for a total of 11 years for refusing to give up her faith in Falun Gong,
Along with her sister, Ms. Du was sent to a forced labor camp in 2001. They were deprived of sleep and denied use of the toilet. In 2006, Ms. Du was arrested again. While she was in custody, she suffered an inflamed gallbladder and had to be taken to the emergency room.
In 2013, the police broke into Ms. Du’s home, ransacked it, and arrested her. Held in Hantai Detention Center for over a year and a half, she was often in pain and had spasms from gallstones. She could barely eat, drink, or sleep. Every attack of gallstones lasted over ten days. She had four ultrasounds at three hospitals, each diagnosis the same: her gallbladder was full of gallstones. Surgery was recommended, but she was denied being bail for medical treatment. Ms. Du was later tried and sentenced to eight years in prison.
In prison, she was tortured on a metal chair many times. Guards and other inmates often beat her. The beatings were so severe that she lost teeth and her jaw was dislocated. They grabbed her hair and smashed her head against the wall or metal bed frames which caused her to have seizures.
One time, she was not allowed to use the toilet for 17 days. She had no choice but to relieve herself in her pants. Another time, she was forced to sit on a small stool for over five months every day from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Her buttocks turned purple from sitting in one position for a prolonged period. When other inmates were sleeping, Mr. Du was forced to stand in the hallway until midnight in freezing cold.
Falun Gong practitioners in the prison were not allowed to speak to each other, and Ms. Du was monitored at all times. She was tasked with trimming the threads of the finished clothes. She could only see them with her eyes almost on the fabric. When she couldn’t finish her quota, she was forced to stand well into the night while others slept. After four years of this, Ms. Du’s eyesight deteriorated drastically. Objects within a few feet appear blurry to her.
Since 2018, the authorities have suspended her pension, which still hasn’t been reinstated. After her release at the end of 2020, the authorities often harassed her. In April and June 2021, the police went to her home twice, demanding she sign a statement promising to not practice Falun Gong anymore.
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