(Minghui.org) Ms. Hu Fengying, 64, from Chenzhen City, Hunan Province was sentenced to three and a half years following her arrest on March 8, 2022 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Hu Fengying is held at the “high-security ward” in Hunan Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Changsha) and every day, she is ordered to renounce Falun Gong. Her husband is not allowed to visit her on the grounds that she refuses to renounce her faith. The prison is notorious for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, and some have been persecuted to death. Ms. Hu’s husband is very worried about her safety.
Ms. Hu, a retired employee of Chenzhou Match Factory, had a stroke before she began practicing Falun Gong. She underwent a craniotomy and had a piece of her skull removed. After the operation, her speech was severely impacted. She had to pause for a few seconds before she could say each word. Her cognitive ability dropped to that of a child. She also had to take medications every day to control her symptoms.
Some Falun Gong practitioners who knew about Ms. Hu’s condition invited her to read Zhuan Falun, the main teaching of Falun Gong, with them. In the beginning, she read very slowly, but the practitioners were very patient and waited as she slowly read each word aloud. She was encouraged and continued reading. She gradually read fluently and faster.
Within a few months, she was able to speak normally and her cognitive ability also improved significantly. She no longer needed the medications. Her husband was amazed by Falun Gong’s power to resolve illness.
Having had such a positive experience with Falun Gong, Ms. Hu used every opportunity to tell people about her miraculous recovery and tell them the regime’s persecution of this life-transforming practice was illegal (to date, no law in China bans Falun Gong). She was arrested on March 8, 2023 while talking to people about Falun Gong.
The arresting officers from the Beihu District Police Station kept her in custody for 15 days before taking her to the Chenzhou City Detention Center. The Suxian District Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant against her on March 24, 2022.
Huang Kai from the Beihu District Police Station, as well as Fu Liang and Zhang Xin from the Beihu District Police Station, went to Ms. Hu’s home and forced her husband to sign the arrest warrant.
Ms. Hu’s husband tried to deliver clothes for her but the detention center guards refused to accept them. He was very worried about her health, went to the police and showed them the piece of her skull that was removed during the surgery, and said, “My wife had brain surgery. I’ll hold you responsible should she develops any health problems as a result of your long-term detention of her.”
The Suxian District Court sentenced Ms. Hu to three and a half years in late 2022. The details of her indictment, trial, and sentencing are unknown.
At least five Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of the torture they suffered at the Hunan Province Women’s Prison.
Ms. Jia Cuiying, 61 and of Jishou City, Hunan Province, was sentenced to five years in Hunan Province Women’s Prison in late 2001. She was very healthy before her arrest but developed spondylitis (an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine and large joints) after she was repeatedly tortured and pressured to renounce Falun Gong. She was released on medical parole in June 2004 and died on October 20 that year.
Ms. Li Deyin, 55, was a retiree from the Hunan Machine Tool Factory in Changsha City, Hunan Province. She was arrested on August 27, 2002 and sentenced to four years in Hunan Province Women’s Prison, where she was brutally tortured. Her husband visited her on the morning of May 16, 2006 and she still looked fine when he left at 10:00 a.m. Just 3 hours later, at 1:00 p.m., he was informed that Ms. Li was in critical condition and had been taken to the Changsha Center Hospital. When he rushed to the hospital, he noticed that she was unable to speak and was semi-conscious. She died 9 days later, on the afternoon of May 25, 2006.
Ms. Wang Wuhui, of Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, was arrested on June 28, 2008 and sentenced to three years in the Hunan Province Women’s Prison. She was brutally beaten, shocked with electric batons, held in solitary confinement, deprived of sleep, forced to do hard labor, hung up, and subjected to many other forms of torture. Her health quickly declined and she developed a persistent high fever and edema throughout her body. She was unable to eat, stand, or walk. The doctors diagnosed her with uremia. She was released on medical parole in November 2010 and died on December 24, 2012. She was 61.
Ms. Xiao Meijun, a retired food transportation worker in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, was twice jailed at the Hunan Province Women’s Prison for a total of ten years. She was severely tortured and injected with unknown drugs. By the time she finished her second prison term in 2018, she was incapacitated and lost most of her teeth due to the forced-feedings. She passed away on March 2, 2020, at the age of 72.
Ms. Zhang Yaqin, of Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, was arrested on December 30, 2018 and sentenced to three years on August 13, 2019. She was tortured to death on December 12, 2020, seventeen months after she was admitted to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison. She was 65.
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