(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Gong Huadong was born in Shifengyu Village, Changlu Town, Mengyin County, Shandong Province. She is 56 years old and is retired from Hengchang Inc. in Mengyin County. She and her family have suffered from the inhumane persecution since it started in 1999.

In April 2000, Ms. Gong was forced to attend a brainwashing class held by Hengchang Inc. The brainwashing class was initiated by the 610 Office of Mengyin County. Wang Fapu, executive of Hengchang Inc., supervised company employees Li Qiangsheng (residence of Nanbaode Village), Wang Zhiguo, Niu Shizhong, and Han Hongyi to run the brainwashing class. Besides Ms. Gong, Ms. Wang Xiangying and Liu Yuai, two other practitioners who also worked at Hengchang Inc., were forced to attend the brainwashing class. The class was held in the company. After fifteen days of class, none of the three practitioners would give up their belief in Falun Dafa, so Wang Fapu locked the practitioners in an office where they were forced to sleep on the concrete floor.

Ms. Gong's husband Yang Mintong vented his anger at his wife's detention on his wife. He beat Ms. Gong with his belt until it broke. Only then did Wang Fapu let Ms. Gong go home.

Since the three practitioners refused to "transform," they were taken to a brainwashing center run by the 610 Office of Mengyin County on June 30.

One of the most ferocious personnel at the brainwashing center was Fang Simin from Duozhuang Town. Fang was very vicious. In the morning, he commanded practitioners to run and shout slanderous slogans. As Ms. Gong and the other practitioners refused, Fang brutally beat them. Fang's beating left practitioner Mr. Liu Yuanjie's face swollen and her skin black and blue.

Li Zhiye, secretary of the Politics and Law Committee of Mengyin County, and Lei Yancheng, director of the 610 Office's brainwashing center, also designed ways to torture the practitioners psychologically. They read articles that slandered Falun Dafa to practitioners and forced them to take notes. Ms. Gong was illiterate, so Li Zhiye forced her to stay under the burning sun at midday for more than an hour as so-called "punishment."

Since Ms. Gong refused to scold Teacher, Fang Simin and others forced Ms. Gong to squat in a sewer for three whole nights. It was summer time, and there were lots of flies and mosquitoes around the sewer. Ms. Gong was frequently ordered to stand or squat for long periods of time.

To "transform" Ms. Gong, Lei Yancheng took Ms. Gong's 78-year-old father to the brainwashing center in hopes that he would "transform" her. After Ms. Gong's father left, Fang Simin was furious as the visit didn't change Ms. Gong's mind at all. Fang brutally beat Ms. Gong again, claiming that he was teaching her a lesson for her father.

Lei Yancheng even pressed Ms. Gong's daughter who went to a school in Jinan City to come back. Her daughter had to stay with her in the brainwashing center for a week, where her daughter also suffered from mosquito bites.

One night, Fang Simin ordered a drunk guard to beat the practitioners one by one. Ms. Gong's face was black and blue after the beating.

On April 28, 2001, Ms. Gong wrote "Falun Dafa is good" in the factory. Shi Kuang, chief of the police station in the forth police district of Mengyin County, ordered the factory managers to arrest Ms. Gong. On April 29, Ms. Gong was taken to Mengyin Detention Center.

Policeman Wang Wei and others searched Ms. Gong's home. Ms. Gong's husband Yang Mintong refused to let them in, so they arrested Mr. Yang and detained him for two weeks in Mengyin Detention Center.

After a month of imprisonment in Mengyin Detention Center, Ms. Gong was transferred to the 610 Office's brainwashing center again on May 29. Fang Simin ordered guards to handcuff Ms. Gong to a bed. While they beat other practitioners, Ms. Gong told them to stop. They then tied her to a power line pole.

A 610 Office policeman with the surname Zhao (who lives in Nanweizi Village and whose father's name is Zhao Jiexiu) ordered Ms. Gong's father to come to the 610 Office on a rainy day. Due to anxiety and exposure to cold rain, the old man got sick after returning home. Several months later, in November 2001, Ms. Gong's father died.

Ms. Gong was sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp. On June 26, 2001, she was taken to the First Women's Prison of Shandong Province. The policemen from Mengyin County who escorted her to prison pocketed the 500 yuan she was carrying. At the prison, Ms. Gong suffered both mental and physical tortures.

From 1999 to March 26, 2003, when Ms. Gong was released from labor camp, the 610 Office of Mengyin County has been withholding her retirement stipend. Between 1999 and 2003, the 610 Office withheld her stipend of approximately 10,000 yuan. Then the 610 Office withheld her stipend again for nine months since July 2004. The amount of lost stipend for nine months was about 5,400 yuan.

In the middle of the night on February 17, 2005, 610 Office policeman Wang Wei and others broke into Ms. Gong's home and asked her if she had hung any banners on Wenhe Bridge. She said she had not. The police searched her home. Ms. Gong's husband, Yang Mintong was very scared. Although the police didn't find anything they wanted, they took away some jewelry and bank books. They also arrested Ms. Gong. After they confirmed that it wasn't Ms. Gong who hung the banner, they released her around 10 p.m. on February 18.

When Ms. Gong was imprisoned, her husband Mr. Yang Mintong was traumatized. He drank a lot due to depression. Sometimes after drinking, he slept outside the office building of Hengchang Inc. Sometimes on rainy days, he went to the 610 Office's brainwashing center to cry, and asked them why they took his wife there when she hadn't done anything wrong.

Before long, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and passed away three months after the diagnosis. His death is not unrelated to the persecution.