Wang Lianzhi - 王莲芝
Ms. Wang Lianzhi was arrested in 2002 while posting self-adhesive flyers on the street to expose the persecution of Falun Gong. She was detained in the Wuhua District Detention Center for 36 days, and her home was ransacked. The police took her to the Dabanqiao Women's Labor Camp, but her blood pressure was 220, so the camp rejected her. Domestic Security agents forced her family to write a guarantee statement for her before releasing her.
At around 6 p.m. on April 15, 2008, officers Cheng Kunguang, Shen Minggui, and Wang Weichu went to Ms. Wang Lianzhi's home to arrest her. Two days later, at around 10:20 p.m., officer Chen Rui from the Jinbi Community delivered an arrest warrant to Ms. Wang's family. In mid-October, when Ms. Wang's son attempted to deliver clothes to the Xishan District Detention Center for his mother, he was informed that she had been sentenced by the court and transferred to the No. 2 Women's Prison on August 7, two months prior. He went to the prison, but the prison administration denied him visitation and claimed that new detainees could not have any visitors for three months. On the afternoon of November 10, after running back and forth between the prison and the local police office all morning, Ms. Wang's son finally saw his mother. He saw that she was a little thin and pale but mentally fine.
On November 27, 2008, Ms. Wang's son received a call from the prison (86-871-5126191), requesting that he come down to the prison. As soon as he arrived, a guard, whose surname was Liu, asked him to sign a statement. The son asked for the reason and was told that his mother was sick and might need to apply for release on bail for medical reasons. The son demanded to know what her illness was. Yang Huan, the head of the guards, told him it was mental illness. Ms. Wang's son was shocked because not ten days earlier his mother's mental health was normal. How could this have happened? He asked who had made the diagnosis, and they told him it was the city mental hospital. The son then asked to see the diagnosis statement. Because he found the whole thing to be suspicious, Ms. Wang's son did not sign the document at that time. Later, he thought that the most important thing was to get his mother out of jail and get her medical attention as soon as possible, so he signed the document and requested to visit his mother on December 1. The prison administration denied his visitation request, telling him that the release on bail for medical reasons needed to be approved by a higher authority, and it would take more than two months.
Ms. Wang was released on medical parole on January 7, 2009, and she was almost in a vegetative state by then. All of her teeth were loose or falling out, she had terrible headaches, and she could not sleep. She was rushed to the Kunming City First People's Hospital on November 16, 2009, and she never woke up from her unconsciousness. Her family took her home on November 25, 2009 since there was no hope of recovery, and she died on November 27, 2009.
