Kou Xiaoping - 寇晓萍

Chinese name:
寇晓萍
Gender:
Female
Age:
40
City:
Anshan City
Province:
Liaoning
Occupation:
Date of Death:
2002-02-16
Date of Most Recent Arrest:
Most recent place of detention:
Anshan City Forced Labor Camp
Case Description:

Ms. Kou Xiaoping, 40 years old, lived on Liguanweiqinggong Street in the Lishan District of Anshan City, Liaoning Province. She was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor in November 2000 for practicing Falun Gong. During her forced labor term, she was tortured mentally and physically. She was brainwashed and deprived of sleep for nearly a month, which left her emaciated and mentally disoriented.

In November 2000, Ms. Kou Xiaoping was arrested at work and taken away by the Anshan City Police Department. Because she refused to write the "Guarantee Statement," she was sent to the Anshan City Third Detention Center for a 15-day term. Her detention was prolonged, and she was detained for another 15 days. The officers from the first division of the Anshan City Police Department brutally beat her during their many interrogations. After 8 o'clock one morning she was removed from her cell. The police took one hand over her head and down her back and her other hand from the bottom of her back up to the other hand and cuffed them together. She was hung in this position for an entire day and was beaten until her body was covered in bruises. Her thumbs went numb, and she could not get out of bed the next day. (The guards in the Anshan City Third Detention Center witnessed the bruises from the beating by the police department officers.)

Ten days after she was released, the police arrested Ms. Kou again for no apparent reason and sent her to the Second Detention Center. There were many practitioners suffering all kinds of torture in the Second Detention Center. Ms. Kou was illegally detained there for over a month before being sent to the Anshan Reformatory Forced Labor Camp in February 2001. Because she firmly kept up her belief and refused to give in, she was put in the section with the strictest and harshest policies, where she was severely tortured mentally and physically. She was deprived of all personal freedom and was followed and watched even when she used the bathroom. This lasted over a year.

In order to resist the persecution, she started a hunger strike on February 9, 2002. On the sixth day of her hunger strike, she was force-fed and appeared ill the following day. She was then sent to the central hospital. After an examination the doctor wanted to keep her in the hospital for treatment, but reformatory officials refused and she was returned by force. On the eighth day of her hunger strike, she was sent back to the hospital because of her deteriorating health. Ms. Kou Xiaoping died on February 16, 2002.

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