(Minghui.org) A farmer was sentenced to three years in prison on December 4, 2018, for practicing Falun Gong, a mind and body improvement system that has been persecuted by the communist regime in China since 1999.
Ms. Wu Derong was illegally detained for 15 months prior to her sentence. During that time, her family did not know that she had been arrested or where she was. None of them knew about her trial, either. They were waiting for her to celebrate the New Year when they got the notice of her verdict.
The night of her arrest, September 18, 2017, the power suddenly went out in Ms. Wu’s house. When she went out to check the wiring, several police officers grabbed her. Without identifying themselves or showing a search warrant, they went in and ransacked her home. They had Ms. Wu admitted to the Naxi District Detention Center the same night.
This is not the first time that Ms. Wu has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong. She credits the practice for saving her from nasal cancer but has been repeatedly arrested for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. Prior to this latest prison sentence, she was held in a brainwashing center for 32 months, in a forced labor camp for 15 months, and in a prison for 3.5 years.
Falun Gong Cures Nasal Cancer in a Month
Ms. Wu lived in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, and used to suffer multiple ailments before she picked up Falun Gong. Besides a cancerous nasal tumor that caused her deafness, dizziness, and swelling, she also had severe headaches, a skin condition, and inflamed kidneys. Drugs could only ease the pain.
In June 1999 she became a Falun Gong practitioner and within a month, the doctor told her that all her ailments were gone. She became active and enjoyed life.
Tortured in Brainwashing Center for 32 Months
The local police kidnapped Ms. Wu’s son on December 30, 2000, to get to her. When Ms. Wu got home, they arrested and detained her to “prevent her from going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.”
Soon after Ms. Wu’s arrest, local authorities at Xinle Police Station called her husband’s employers and pressured them to fire him because his wife practiced Falun Gong. The family lost two incomes and was in dire financial straits.
Four days after her arrest, two officers went back to Ms. Wu’s home and searched it illegally. When her husband came home, he discovered that their cash and Falun Gong books were missing. When he went to the police station to ask for his wife, the police tried to extort 5000 yuan (~US$ 728 ) from him in exchange for her release. The family couldn’t afford it, so Ms. Wu was detained in Naxi District Brainwashing Center for 32 months.
Ms. Wu and other practitioners were tortured in the brainwashing center in attempts to force them to give up their faith. The center was abolished in August 2003 and she was released.
Tortured in Forced Labor Camp and Illegally Sentenced
Ms. Wu was arrested again on March 7, 2004, only six months after she was released from the brainwashing center. She was taken to Nanmusi Women’s Forced Labor Camp and tortured for 15 months. She was then sentenced to three and a half years in prison for her belief.
At first the labor camp refused to admit Ms. Wu because of her dangerously high blood pressure. But the police simply left her there. In the camp Ms. Wu was forced to stand or sit still from 6 a.m. to 2 to 3 a.m. the next day. Often she fainted from exhaustion. Each time, instead of giving her medical attention, the guard woke her up and continued the abuse. As a result her legs became badly swollen. She was also deprived of sleep.
Ms. Wu had to do manual labor beginning at 6 a.m. She often had to stay up till 2 to 3 a.m. the next day to finish her quota. For example she had to separate black bristles from the white ones under dim light, which weakened her eye quickly. She had to move very heavy objects and barely had time to rest. She wasn’t allowed bathroom breaks when she needed them. She was forced to run laps. When she couldn’t move anymore, the guards would instigate other prisoners to drag her and force her to keep running.
Ms. Wu was later transferred to Hejiang Detention Center. For 48 days she was put in solitary confinement, where she was forced to sleep on the Death Bed. The guards shackled her arms and legs to the four legs of the bed, immobilized in a spread-eagle position. The bed and floor were stained with blood, and she wasn’t allowed to clean herself.
She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in Hejiang Court in 2009.
Related Report:
Six Practitioners Unconstitutionally Prosecuted By Hejiang County Procuratorate in Sichuan Province
