(Minghui.org) Ms. Yang Jie was placed in a solitary confinement cell for months by the Zhejiang Province Women’s Prison authorities. During the steamy, hot summer months, she was not allowed to take a shower. After she was released, she was covered with scabies, pus and blood, and her once-black hair had turned completely white. Even her former cellmates did not recognize her.
This is only part of the persecution that Ms. Yang, 51, suffered during her second illegal imprisonment. She has been imprisoned there for more than a year.
Ms. Yang from Hangzhou City was illegally sentenced to five years in jail in November 2012 for distributing Falun Gong informational DVDs to the public.
Ms. Yang was also denied visits from her mother Ms. Tang Kai, who passed away in 2012 due to breast cancer, after she was forced to stop practicing Falun Gong under the persecution.
Tortured During the First Six-Year Illegal Prison Term (2006-2012)
Ms.Yang received a six-year sentence and was sent to the Zhejiang Women’s Prison in 2006. The guards beat her with electric batons and she was treated harshly. She was also not allowed to wash herself during her period. They even inserted a filthy rag into her mouth to silence her.
She was forced to stand for hours, deprived of sleep, and forced to perform manual labor during the day despite her lack of sleep. She was sent to solitary confinement a number of times.
Ms. Yang suffered all this torture and abuse simply because police found Falun Gong informational materials when they ransacked her home on the afternoon of April 1, 2005.
Arrested and Detained (2005-2006)
Ms. Yang and another practitioner were followed by several officers from the Xihu Police Department in Hangzhou City on the afternoon of April 1, 2005. The police later broke into her home, found Falun Gong informational materials, and arrested them. Ms. Yang was sent to the Hangzhou City Detention Center for long-term detention.
Ms. Yang was once handcuffed to a rail for 15 days during the winter, and she was only allowed to wear a shirt in the cold weather. With her hands shackled, she could not even have normal meals, and other inmates were told to feed her. The handcuffs cut into her wrists, causing bloody wounds. One guard told her that the prison has a death allotment, so they were not afraid of killing someone.
Ms. Yang was detained until she was sentenced to prison in 2006.
Earlier Persecution (1999-2001)
Ms. Yang was arrested from home and sent to the Zhejiang Women's Forced Labor Camp for two years at the end of June 2001. Because she refused to give up her belief, she suffered severe torture from the “harsh disciplinary team” and her health seriously deteriorated. Her family was forced to pay 100 yuan per day for her labor camp “expenses.”
One day in December 1999, she participated in an open Falun Gong exercise group at Zhejiang University campus, which the authorities viewed as defiance. Afterwards she was arrested and detained for 15 days.
Because Ms. Yang refused to stop practicing Falun Gong, police harassed her at home and at her work several times. This harassment made it impossible for her to keep her job, and she lost several of them.
Persecution of Other Practitioners in Zhejiang Province Women's Prison
Many practitioners suffered a similar fate as Ms. Yang in Zhejiang Women’s Prison. They were incarcerated in solitary confinement cells.
Ms. Feng Huimin was arrested on the evening of June 22, 2009. After receiving a seven-year sentence, Ms. Feng suffered numerous forms of torture, including force-feeding and long-term constraint by handcuffs and foot shackles. As this article is being written, Ms. Feng is constantly being watched by two inmates in the Women’s Prison’s #5 section.
Ms. Li Min, another practitioner from Hangzhou City, was imprisoned there for three years. When she was released in January 2014, she barely resembled the person that she was when she was first incarcerated.
Background
Ms. Yang Jie began to work in Hangzhou Livestock Products Import and Export Company after she graduated from college. She was in her 30’s when the persecution started in July 1999.
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