Gansu Woman Tortured in Custody, Faces Prosecution for Her Faith

(Minghui.org) A 53-year-old Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, resident is facing prosecution for talking to people about her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Zhang Ping was followed by plainclothes officers while talking to people on the street on May 9, 2022. Three officers, including Liu Yuanhua, Kang Zhongqiang, and Li Bo, waited at a bus station and arrested her after she got off the bus. Three more officers, Wei Zhihong, Hua Jiyuan, and Wang, joined them while ransacking Ms. Zhang’s home. Officer Hua handcuffed Ms. Zhang to her sofa and didn’t allow her to move during the raid.

After two days at the Lanzhou Police Department, Ms. Zhang was taken to the Lanzhou City No. 1 Detention Center. Because she did the Falun Gong exercises on the evening of May 16, the chief of the 11th ward, Wang Yan, forced her to kneel down and then chained her hands and feet tightly together, rendering her unable to stand up or lie down. They kept her chained in the kneeling position for twenty days. During that time, she was only given some water every day. She struggled to use the restroom during that time.

Torture illustration: chained in a kneeling position

On June 8, Ms. Zhang was transferred to the 13th ward. The guards are now forcing her to stand for at least four hours each day and threatening to extend it to eight hours and torture her with the technique illustrated above again.

In addition to the daily torture, Ms. Zhang, who is single, also has no extra change of clothes or supply of daily necessities, as her family members all live in other cities and couldn’t deliver the items to her.

Ms. Zhang is now facing prosecution after prosecutor Zhao Xinyu of the Chengguan District Procuratorate approved her arrest.

Other Falun Gong practitioners who are currently held at the 13th and 14th wards in Lanzhou City Detention Center include Ma Jun, Wang Lin, Lu Yuying, Li Dongmei, Qi Yulian, Liang Ailing, Qiang Baoyue, Cui Chengxiang, Cui Jianping, Wang Mei, Jin Yijun and Zhou Yuezhen.

Ms. Zhang, a former employee of the Gansu Province Trust Investment Company, has previously been arrested in 2006 and also detained at the Lanzhou City No.1 Detention Center. She held several hunger strikes to protest the persecution and was force fed. The guards handcuffed her behind her back, even when she was taken to the hospital for treatment. She became incontinent as a result of the torture. She was later sentenced to five years and endured more brutal torture in prison.

Torture illustration: Handcuffed behind the back

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Wei Zhihong (魏至红), officer, Lanzhou City Domestic Security Office: [phone], [phone]Li Kui (李奎), head of Lanzhou City No.1 Detention Center: [phone]Zhao Xinyu (赵新宇), prosecutor, Chengguan District Procuratorate: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)