Previously Incarcerated for a Decade, 65-Year-Old Jilin Woman Sentenced to Prison Again for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Ms. Han Xiaolian, 65, in Changchun City, Jilin Province, was recently sent to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Han, born in July 1959, was arrested on April 17, 2024, after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The arresting officers from the Jiutai District Police Department took her to the Xinglongshan Detention Center. Her family was not allowed to visit her and could only deliver clothes to the detention center. They weren’t notified of any official updates of her case and only recently learned that she was sentenced to either three or three and a half years in prison.

Overview of Ms. Han’s Persecution

This is not the first time Ms. Han has been targeted for her faith, which she took up in 1998 and credits for resolving her heart disease and hyperthyroidism. She was arrested on December 31, 1999 and March 6, 2000, while appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing. She was detained for 15 days both times.

After another arrest on May 15, 2000, Ms. Han was given one year of forced labor and taken to the Jilin Province Women’s Labor Camp eight days later. She went on a hunger strike in protest and was shocked with high-voltage electric batons. She fainted as a result. After she came to, she was forced to sit on a small stool for long hours and write statements to renounce Falun Gong. When she was not being tortured, she was forced to do hard labor for more than ten hours a day.

Not long after her release, Ms. Han was arrested again on September 25, 2001. Her then 15-year-old son tried to stop the police from taking her away and was brutally beaten by three officers. A 20-year-old guest was also beaten and bled heavily. Ms. Han’s elderly father was pushed to the ground by the police. She later managed to escape from the local police station, but was arrested again on May 21, 2002. Eight days later, her 16-year-old son was also arrested and given one and a half years of forced labor.

Ms. Han was later sentenced to 11 years in prison and released ahead of time in 2011.

After another arrest on March 3, 2017, she was detained for 15 days.

The rest of the report covers Ms. Han’s 2002 arrest and subsequent prison sentence.

Tortured at a Lockup

Ms. Han was on her way home on May 21, 2002, when officer Zhao from the Yingcheng Police Station seized her. Several officers slapped her face and searched her purse at the police station. They photographed her and ordered her to pay a fee for it. That afternoon, officer Wang Haohong and three others covered her head with a plastic bag and took her to the Jiutai District Lockup.

The police restrained Ms. Han in a metal chair with her hands cuffed behind her back and her feet shackled to a metal ring at the bottom of the chair. Officer Qu Chunsen yanked her hands upward, causing excruciating pain.

Torture instrument: Metal chair

The police did not allow Ms. Han to move. Her feet soon became swollen and numb. Her fingers also became numb and did not fully regain functioning after six months.

Tortured at a Detention Center

Ms. Han was moved to the Jiutai District Detention Center on the night of May 22, 2002. Guard Zhang Wenda once took her out of her cell and demanded money from her. He also verbally abused her. When she tried to stop him, he kicked her and called in more than ten other guards to put a 66-pound shackle on her. She still refused to give Zhang any money, and he removed the shackle the next day.

Sentenced to 11 Years

Ms. Han was tried on September 5, 2003. She was not allowed to testify in her own defense. Whenever she tried to talk, the bailiff shocked her with electric batons. There were blisters on her back and bruises on her left thigh as a result.

The sentencing hearing was held on November 7, 2003. The entire route from the detention center to the courthouse was lined with police cars. Both inside and outside the courtroom were numerous police officers, who either held guns or electric batons. The police also put a noose around Ms. Han’s neck and tightened the rope so hard that she almost suffocated. She yelled “Falun Dafa is good” and was taken out of the courtroom and repeatedly shocked with electric batons.

Torture reenactment: noose around neck

Ms. Han was sentenced to 11 years and sent to a local prison.

Tortured in Prison

On January 26, 2004, Ms. Han was put in solitary confinement when she tried to stop inmates Lyu Guichun and Wang Xiaomin from beating another practitioner Ms. Fu Guijie. On April 15 that year, the same guard, Li Jian, put her in solitary confinement again when she tried to stop the abuse of other practitioners. He also cuffed her hands to a ring on the wall.

Ms. Han remained firm in her faith and Li took her out of solitary confinement seven days later to a torture chamber. He tied her in a bed in a spread eagle position. Nine days later she vomited blood and her head swelled. Her systolic blood pressure shot up to over 200 mmHg. Li then took her to the prison hospital for IV injections. Eight days later he took her back to the solitary confinement cell.

Ms. Han still refused to write statements to renounce her faith. The guards later ordered her to do hard labor.

Ms. Han’s brother, his wife and their daughter came to the prison on July 22, 2004 to visit her, but were turned away by guard Cao Hong. She filed a complaint against Cao with the prison management, only to be subjected to even more abuse. She had a relapse of her heart condition, yet guard Zhou Yuan still forced her to listen to audio recordings that slandered Falun Gong from 5 a.m. to midnight.

In October 2004, guard Hu Xiumei put Ms. Han in solitary confinement because she remained firm in her faith. Inmate Liu Chunyang, who was assigned to watch her, ordered some food for herself but charged the cost to Ms. Han’s commissary account. Liu also used foul language to humiliate Ms. Han. It was very cold in October, yet Liu opened all the windows to freeze Ms. Han.

The guards forced Ms. Han to stand as punishment in late 2006. After she protested by refusing to follow their commands, the guards bound her with rope and hung her up with her feet off the ground. They next tied her to a bed in a spread-eagle position. When she needed to use the toilet, she had no choice but to relieve herself in the bed.

Starting in May 2007, Ms. Han was forced to do hard labor for more than ten hours every day. She was released in 2011 before her term ended.

Related Article in Chinese:

血雨腥风十八年

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