(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Shen Yueping died on July 16, 2009, only two months after being released from prison in critical condition. She had endured over four years of torture and abuse while incarcerated for her belief. She was only 49 years old.
Her husband, Mr. Pu Zhiming, has filed a lawsuit with the Chinese Supreme Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. He is seeking an investigation into the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women's Prison and the individuals involved in the arrest, sentencing, and detention of his wife.
Key Facts about Ms. Shen Yueping
Name: Shen Yueping (沈跃平) Gender: Female Age: 49 Address: Hutain community, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province Occupation: Attending physician at Maternal and Children's Health Hospital in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province Date of Death: July 16, 2009 Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 28, 2004 Most recent place of detention: Yunnan Province No. 2 Women's Prison (云南省女子第二监狱) City: Yuxi Province: Yunnan Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation, illegal sentencing, forced labor, torture, beatings, solitary confinement, drug administration, sleep deprivation, brainwashing, home ransacked
Family of Three Persecuted for Their Belief
Mr. Pu, 56, was formerly employed at the Business Development Bureau of Yuxi City. He, his wife and their son, Pu Dan, started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. They strived to be kind people, both at work and home. Their son stopped lying and became an excellent student after taking up the practice.
After July 20, 1999—when the persecution of Falun Dafa began—Zhong Guanghan, then-chairman of the Business Development Bureau, had many talks with Mr. Pu. Zhong advised Mr. Pu to stop practicing Falun Dafa, or else his son would have a bleak future. Ms. Shen, a physician, was also pressured to renounce her faith by Fang Weiqun, a director of the hospital where she worked.
Despite the enormous pressure, Mr. Pu and Ms. Shen did not give up their belief.
On October 1, 2000, Mr. Pu, his wife, their son and eight other Falun Dafa practitioners from Yuxi went to Beijing. The other practitioners included Ms. Zhang Jinxian, Ms. Niu Yuqiong, Mr. Deng Zhixu, Mr. Huang Kuanping (from Sichuan), Ms. Niu Zhuanqiong, Ms. Zhu Fenglan, Mr. Li Jianxiang, Mr. Jing Yunfei, and Mr. Wang Feng (factory worker at Yuxi Eshan Iron and Steel Factory).
At noon on October 9, they went to Tiananmen Square and held up a banner that read, “Falun Dafa is good,” in order to dispel the slander propagated by the communist regime. They shouted, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!”
They were arrested right away by plainclothes police and taken to the Tiananmen Square Branch of the police department.
Mr. Pu, Mr. Huang, and Mr. Wang were later taken to another police station. They were beaten as soon as they arrived and then forced to squat all night. If they sat on the ground due to exhaustion, the police would kick them, repeatedly slap their faces with shoe soles, and then force them to squat again. Mr. Huang was dragged outside and had cold water poured on him; he was then shocked with an electric baton.
After one night of torture, the three practitioners were sent to a detention center in a Beijing suburb for five days.
Zhang Xiangyu and Zhu Jiayong of the Yuxi Domestic Security Division subsequently took Mr. Pu back to Yuxi and incarcerated him at the Hongta Detention Center. Ms. Shen was also sent to the Hongta Detention Center that day.
Mr. Pu was detained for 56 days and then sentenced to two years of forced labor by the Yuxi Forced Labor Camp Committee. Ms. Shen was detained for 14 days and then sentenced to a three-year term in the Yunnan Province Women's Forced Labor Camp. Mr. Pu was allowed to served his term outside because the couple's child did not have any other caretakers at home.
When Mr. Pu returned to his place of employment, chairman Zhong Guanghan informed him that he was demoted and would now be working as a janitor. He was paid only 235 yuan each month, instead of his normal pay rate.
Ms. Shen was forced to renounce her belief against her will while in the labor camp. Personnel from the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, notorious for severely persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners, came to the Yunnan Province Women's Forced Labor Camp to participated in the “transformation” effort. Ms. Shen was also forced to do slave labor.
Ms. Shen was released in 2002. The family of three finally reunited. However, they were separated again just three years later and would never reunite again.
Mr. Pu's Firsthand Account of the Persecution
In the lawsuit that Mr. Pu submitted to the court and the procurator's office, he summarized the details of the persecution that he and his wife suffered as follows:
“On the evening of December 28, 2004, my wife Shen Yueping, I, and two other Falun Gong practitioners, Ms. Niu Yuqiong (53 years old, retiree in Yuxi) and Mr. Hu Xianding (63 years old, former employee of Yuxi Power Supply Bureau), were arrested at Yuxi Stadium by Du Yunchang and Zhang Xiangyu from the Yuxi Domestic Security Division and Zhu Jiayong, Zhu Yi, and others from the Hongta Domestic Security Division.
“A dozen copies of Minghui Weekly were confiscated from us. We were taken to the Hongta Police Department for interrogation. They asked us where we got our Falun Gong materials and what else we did.
“Around 10 p.m. the same night, the police took my wife and me home and ransacked our home. They took our computer, printer, copier, computer disks, MP3 player, and other personal belongings. They also confiscated my minivan.
“After a long night of interrogation, the four of us were taken to the Hongta District Detention Center in Yuxi. I was then transferred to the Jiangchuan County Detention Center. Officers from the Hongta Police Department even intimated my teenage son; he was locked up for three days.
“The Hongtai District Procuratorate filed charges against me, my wife, Ms. Niu Yuqiong, and Mr. Hu Xianding on May 3, 2005. They accused us of 'using a heretical organization to undermine the implementation of law.'
“On May 10, 2005, the Hongta Court sentenced my wife to a five-year prison term. I was sentenced to a four-year prison term. Ms. Niu was sentenced to a two-year prison term, and Mr. Hu was sentenced to one year in prison. We appealed right away. The charges were false and distorted. We were only having a conversation on the night of the arrest—we did not do anything that had interfered with the law.
“We heard from the Yuxi Middle Court on May 24, 2005. They maintained the original sentencing. My wife and Ms. Niu were sent to Yunnan Province No. 2 Women's Prison, while Mr. Hu and I were sent to the Yunnan Province No. 1 Prison on May 26, 2005.
“My wife was first put in the Training Ward and then transferred to the No. 3 Ward. I was at the Yunnan Province No. 1 Prison. Every day, the prison guard read me books that slandered Falun Dafa and pressed me to give up my practice.
“I was sitting in the lotus position on my bed on the evening of May 24, 2006. He Qingfu, head of the labor group, instructed inmates Yang Shuming and Lu Dehua to throw me off the bed and beat me for over 10 minutes. They were exhausted from the beating, and I lay in bed for a month. I was taken to the hospital for X-rays 10 days later. Two of my ribs were broken. I did not receive any treatment, but because of Dafa's healing power, my ribs healed.
“During the first year in prison, my duty was to clean the restrooms and the dining hall. After that, I picked peas, sorted sunflower seeds, and pressed and wrapped tea leaves. I usually worked 15 hours a day, sometimes 18 hours a day.
“The Yuxi Business Bureau terminated my employment on August 24, 2005. Officials from my employer, the Folk Religion Committee, and the Yuxi Police Department came to the prison to force me to sign the termination agreement.
“My wife and I kept in contact by mail. I received her last letter in December 2006.
“I was released on February 1, 2008. From March on, I went to the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women's Prison every month. However, I never got to see my wife because she was not 'transformed,' meaning she had refused to give up practicing Falun Dafa.
“It was not until 11 a.m. on May 12, 2009, that I got a phone call from section chief Lei of the prison. I was told that the hospital had issued a notice of critical condition for my wife. He said I could visit her in the hospital.
“My wife was sent to the Kunming City Workers' Hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 2 p.m. on May 12, 2009. Our family went in to see her in small groups. I was the last one to see her. She was on her last breath, with nothing but skin and bones. Her face was covered with wrinkles, and she did not have strength to talk. Upon arriving at the hospital, I was told to sign on the second notice of critical condition. The first one was only signed by the prison.
“In her condition, my wife was still under close watch by the prison guards. A few hours later, my wife was transferred to the Labor Camp Bureau Hospital. I was allowed one five-minute visit a day, and no other family members were allowed to see her.
“Two days later, deputy chief of the prison Wang Limei, along with section chief Lei Yu and other prison guards, talked to me. They said they were afraid that my wife's situation had become life-threatening, so they signed the release form for her to seek medical treatment. I had to promise to report on her condition to the prison every six months.
“Our family and I brought my wife to the Infectious Disease Department at Kunming No. 3 People's Hospital. The chairman of the department said my wife's lungs had completely failed, having become rotten like worn cotton pads. 'It's too late,' he said.
“By that time, my wife was able to talk. She told us that when she was at the Kunming Workers' Hospital and the Labor Camp Bureau Hospital, she was only given a bowl of porridge or rice noodles per day. She was hungry for most of the day, not to mention that she was in critical condition.
“The guards also did not give her any of the nourishment and fruit we sent her [in the prison]. The guard with surname Zhang had lied and told us that my wife ate well.
“My wife stayed at the hospital, but her condition got worse and worse, until she passed away on July 16.”
“My wife, Shen Yueping, recalled her experience at the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women's Prison. She was sent to the Training Ward first. Three months later, she was transferred to No. 3 Ward. She was forced to do slave labor—she had to work until 11 p.m. every day. She wrote her last letter to me in December 2006 before being sent to solitary confinement.
“There is a solitary confinement room in the Training Ward specifically set up for Falun Dafa practitioners. It is only about 5 square meters. There are rubber mats on the wall and surveillance cameras. [Assigned] inmates manned the cameras.
“My wife was forced to sit on a small stool for at least 15 hours every day. If she shifted her body, the inmates would beat and pinch her, stab her with needles, or otherwise harass her immediately.
“She was allowed to used the toilet only three times a day and shower only once every two weeks. The prison personnel made her take unknown drugs; she refused to take them. They then mashed up the pills and mixed them into her food. Whenever she ate the food with the hidden medication, she would cough nonstop day and night until her lungs hurt. Also, guards confiscated the money her family put on her debit card. My wife did not spend a cent after she was sent to confinement.
“After four years of torment in the prison, my wife was sent to the hospital when she was on her last breath. She had already been unconscious for five hours before she was sent to the hospital.”
Agencies and Individuals Involved in the Persecution (partial list) Yuxi Hongta District Court: Wang Rui, Zhou Xun, He Ling, Zhang Cuiling Yuxi Middle Court: Qian Lifang, Zhang Xinyu, Qiu Kairong Yang Mingshan, warden of the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women's Prison
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-Dr. Shen Yueping from Yunnan Subjected to Persecution Before She Died
-Remembering Doctor Shen Yueping
-Ms. Shen Yueping Dies As a Result of Abuse in Prison
-Persecution of Practitioners in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province
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