(Minghui.org) Ms. Song Shouyun, 55, was arrested in October 2016 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted in China since 1999.
Her family never heard from her until September of this year, when an official from the Chaoyang City Detention Center called and advised them that Ms. Song had fallen into a coma.
She was on life support when her son saw her in the hospital and has been unconscious ever since. Despite her condition, the authorities managed to sentence her to a year in prison for “using a cult to undermine law enforcement," a blanket accusation used by the Chinese communist regime against Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Song’s son wrote an open letter to the residents of Chaoyang City, asking them for help to rescue his mother and to save her from being tormented any further. Following is the text of his letter.
Please Help Our Devasted Family
My name is Gao Feng and I live in Chaoyang County. There used to be five of us in our family, from my 80-year-old grandmother to my teenaged younger brother. My mother, Ms. Song Shouyun, took care of everything in the house and worked to support the family.
A year ago, disaster struck and shattered our family. I am begging everyone to help save us from the Chinese Communist regime persecution.
On October 24, 2016, the police broke into our home without a warrant or identifying themselves. My mother was home alone. They arrested her, confiscated her Falun Gong books, and stole cash, none of which has been returned to us.
They held her in Chaoyang City Detention Center for almost a year. During that time we didn’t receive any notification from any government office. In the middle of the night on September 28, 2017, we got a call from the detention center saying that my mother was on the verge of death and being resuscitated in the Second Hospital.
When we saw her in the ICU, she was unconscious and connected to all kinds of tubes. We were numb from shock and couldn’t stop crying. The doctor said that they had to operate on her brain or she would die or became a vegetable.
As we stood there in disbelief, detention center authorities shirked all responsibility. They did not want my mother to die in their custody and forced us to bail my mother out for medical attention and take her home.
My mother is a simple woman who farmed for a living. She took care of her family and never hurt anyone. I can’t imagine what ruthless torture she must have endured in the past year for her to have ended up like this.
After she became a Falun Gong practitioner, she regained her health was practically never sick. In her present comatose state, her eyes are wide open.
She just couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong and why the government would harm her. She abided by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and never fought with anyone. Why do the perpetrators abhor benevolence?
After learning that my mother’s life was in danger, 859 people signed a petition in her support. Our family is sincerely thankful to all the townsfolk for supporting our mother in her hour of need.
A kind eyewitness shared the following details on the Minghui website about what happened to her that year she was in the detention center:
Detained for Over a Year
Director Suo Jingdong and officers from the Nanshuangmiaoxiang Police Station ransacked Ms. Song's home on October 24, 2016. They confiscated her personal belongings and arrested her. She was held in the Chaoyang Women's Detention Center, which is overseen by director BaoYingying and deputy director Xu Jing.
Relentless Torture
Ms. Song was tortured from the time she arrived in the detention center. She was forced to sit in a full lotus position for more than 14 hours each day and was brutally beaten if she moved. She developed sores on her ankles that got infected and festered.
Guards ordered inmates to beat her. They also stole her warm clothes and bedding, leaving her uncovered during the frigid winter.
She was only allowed to wear underwear during the winter of 2016. The windows were open during the day and there was no bedding for her at night. Her health deteriorated and she lost a lot of weight. Inmates also forced drugs down her throat and she was beaten until she bled.
Guard Xu Jing ordered several inmates to “wash” her on December 7, 2016. They stripped her, pinned her to the ground, poured cold water over her, and opened the window.
She was forced to stand for long periods of time starting in April 2017. Two inmates at a time watched her in two-hour shifts. She had to stand straight, and any movement prompted a beating.
The inmates took her money to buy things for themselves, disposed of her toiletries, made her buy more, and then disposed of them again.
While she was in the detention center, the local Zhaoyan Public Security Bureau, the procuratorate, and Chaoyang Court framed her and sentenced her to a one-year prison term. By the time the verdict was reached, she only had three months left to serve, but they did not release her.
Why Persecute Good People?
My mother has been in a coma and hospitalized for two months. The detention center authorities concealed all details of what happened to her there and tried to shake off all responsibility.
I can’t believe that the people in the detention center who hurt my mother had so much hatred for a good person. My mother is trapped in this misery simply because she refused to give up the practice that keeps her healthy and teaches her the meaning of life and how to become a better person.
The Chaoyang County Police Department, Procuratorate, and Court colluded to sentence my mother to one year. The law is supposed to punish the bad but now it is used to frame the good.
My family does not accept this. Unfortunately, we are just ordinary people without connections. We ask everyone in Chaoyang City to help her. I want a just and legal solution for my mother.
I've read the laws that are cited to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They are charged with violating Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which says that anyone using a cult organization to undermine enforcement of the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.
Since the People’s Congress (China’s legislative body) has never enacted a law deeming Falun Gong a “cult,” former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin directed the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate to issue a statutory interpretation of Article 300 in November 1999 that required that anyone practicing or promoting Falun Gong be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.
A new statutory interpretation that replaced the 1999 version took effect on February 1, 2017. The new interpretation made no mention of Falun Gong and emphasized that any indictment against anyone engaging in a cult must be based on solid legal grounds. Since no law in China labels Falun Gong a cult, the indictment against Falun Gong practitioners lacks legal basis.
The possession, reading, and/or dissemination of Falun Gong books is considered “evidence” to be used against them. The police and prosecutors also cite two notices issued by China's Administration of Press and Publications in July 1999 that banned the publication of Falun Gong books. However, that ban was repealed in 2011 and it is completely legal for practitioners to own Falun Gong books.
Practicing Falun Gong shouldn’t be illegal—it should be proclaimed. The persecution brought calamity to hundreds of millions of Falun Gong practitioners and their families. As the good people are being persecuted, the justice system in China is deteriorating and so are its moral values. Every Chinese is a victim of the persecution.
I call upon everyone in the world to pay attention to my mother’s case. With everyone’s support, I believe that my mother will have justice. The good will be rewarded and the bad will be punished.
[signed]Gao Feng, son of the victimNovember 23, 2017
Related report:Falun Gong Practitioner Comatose for Over Two Months
