(Minghui.org) Ms. Qin Zengyun, a 66-year-old resident of Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on July 22, 2016 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted in China since July 1999. She was sent to the Nangou Detention Center and was later sentenced to 3.5 years. She was transferred to Liaoning Provincial Women’s Prison in April 2019. By the time she was discharged on January 21, 2020, her health deteriorated as a result of torture and her tuberculosis was not treated. Her pension was suspended, and she was denied low income subsidy. Without any source of income, she lived in despair and continues to be frequently harassed by the local authorities.
When Ms. Qin was held in the detention center, she was often forced to stand for hours because she refused to follow orders or do the forced labor. Her health quickly declined and she contracted tuberculosis. She coughed a lot and had difficulty breathing. At one point the doctor removed 4.5 liters of fluid from her chest. Despite the severe health conditions, the court denied her family’s request for medical parole, and allowed her to be transferred to the prison.
The prison authorities, in order to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith, appointed inmates to watch and torture practitioners around the clock. These inmates are refereed to as “educators” or “collaborators.”
Because of her poor health, Ms. Qin was held in the hospital ward of the prison, where the authorities subjected steadfast practitioners to unknown drugs. To break the practitioners’ will, the authorities injected them with nerve-damaging drugs and instigated the patients with mental illnesses to abuse them.
On the 3rd day Ms. Qin was taken to the hospital ward, guard Hu Ying tried to force her to write a “thought report” to slander her practice. Instead she wrote how her mental and physical health improved as a result of the practice. Hu yelled and verbally abused her. She also ordered Ms. Qin’s cell mates to beat her. These inmates wrote slanderous words about Falun Gong and its founder on the soles of her feet and the bottom of her shoes. They also wrote the slanderous words on the ground and forced her to squat on them. This was meant to humiliate her and make her feel guilty for insulting the practice.
Two collaborators Zhang and Zhao brought in psychiatric patients to physically assault her, and they dis not allow her to use the bathroom. She had to squat all day in the morning and stand still in the evenings until 10 p.m. Zhang bent Ms. Qin’s fingers backward and tore her ligaments because she refused to sign the statements to renounce her faith. Her palm swelled up, and her hand turned black the next day.
The tortures inside the prison further worsened Ms. Qin’s health. She developed many lumps on her chest and armpits. The prison authorities wanted her to have surgery to remove the lumps, and she and her family refused because surgery was not the best option at the time. Instead of allowing her to go home and resume practicing Falun Gong, the authorities forced her to sign a disclaimer stating that the prison was not responsible for her condition and any consequences.
During the nine months Ms. Qin spent in the prison, guards appointed many different collaborators to torture her. The measures they used were so merciless that many inmates sympathized with her.
Ms. Qin wasn’t the only one in her family who has been persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. Her husband who practiced, was forced to renounce his faith due to the relentless threats and harassment by the community officials and local police. He was diagnosed with cancer after he gave up the practice, and passed away in February 15, 2022.
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