(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhou Yuelian was arrested by officers from the Lanzhou City Police Department when she was visiting another practitioner, Wang Qingnian, on September 11, 2016.
She was first sent to the Xigu District Detention Center. One week later, she was transferred to the Lanzhou City Drug Addiction Treatment Center, which was formerly called the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center.
Ms. Zhou, 61, has been illegally sentenced to prison and labor camp several times for her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She started to practice Falun Gong in 1996.
Ms. Zhou Yuelian
Health Returns After Learning Falun Gong
Ms. Zhou is retired from the Weida Company of Lanzhou Petroleum. She had a stomach ailment since she was very young. As she got older she developed more diseases, including heart pain, high blood pressure, nephritis, and arthritis. Every time it rained, her entire body ached, and she had to take various medications.
A friend introduced her to Falun Gong in 1996. Initially, she just wanted to try it out. However, the symptoms of her illnesses gradually disappeared and her body felt very light. She felt very relaxed and happy when she attended the Falun Gong group activities. Ms. Zhou gradually became a steadfast practitioner.
Sentenced to Forced Labor
The first time Ms. Zhou was arrested for practicing Falun Gong was by officers from the Lanzhou City Police Department's Domestic Security Division on November 13, 2001. She was interrogated for an entire night and then sent back to work at the Weida Company. Company guards and police monitored her in turn. She was not left alone or allowed to leave the industrial compound for three months.
One month after Ms. Zhou was released, officers from the Lanzhou Petroleum Police Station and the Lanzhou Police Department broke into her home while she was taking care of her bedridden 80-year-old mother.
They announced that they had an urgent matter to talk to Ms. Zhou about for 30 minutes. She was then taken to the Xiguoyuan Detention Center. Her mom and son were left home alone with no one to take care of them.
Ms. Zhou was made to do forced labor for three months. Around 18 people were locked into one small cell each night. The space was so small that no one could roll over.
She was transferred from the Xiguoyuan Detention Center to a brainwashing center in the Xigu District in June 2002. Six security guards and two colleagues took turns monitoring her around the clock. Personnel from the local 610 Office played videos which slandered Falun Gong and threatened practitioners in order to get them to give up their belief. The brainwashing class also extorted 3,000 yuan per month from the practitioners' companies for living expenses.
Later Detained for One Year
Officers from the Lanzhou City Police Department arrived at Ms. Zhou's home and arrested her on December 24, 2003. They took away her personal belongings, including Falun Gong books, pictures of the founder of Falun Gong, a computer, printer, TV, and an mp3 player.
Ms. Zhou was taken to the police station and bound to a steel chair. Her ankles were shackled and her hands cuffed with special shackles that could be screwed tighter and tighter.
The officers kept tightening the cuffs to inflict more and more pain. She finally collapsed and hit her head on the desk sitting in front of her.
When Ms. Zhou's hands were completely numb, they loosened the cuffs a little, moved her hands, and found other sensitive spots to inflict pain. She was tortured for an entire day and night.
Ms. Zhou was sent to Xiguoyuan Detention Center on December 28, 2003. The center's doctor found her hands and right wrist were seriously injured and dislocated. He refused to admit her to the detention center. At that moment, the detention center's deputy chief came and decided to accept Ms. Zhou. She was then jailed in the detention center for 14 months.
5 Year Prison Sentence for Refusing to Give Up Her Beliefs
The Xiguo District Court sentenced Ms. Zhou to 5 years in prison in the Fall of 2004 without notifying her family or lawyer.
She was transferred to the Gansu Provincial Women's Prison on March 18, 2005. When she refused to wear an inmate's uniform, she was locked up in solitary confinement.
During the day she had to sit on a narrow bench with her hands cuffed to the legs of the bench. At night, she was handcuffed to the headboard. After being tortured for three days, she was released from the cell.
Ms. Zhou was held in the new arrival team for eight months. Every day, the guards forced practitioners to watch videos and read books which slandered Falun Gong.
Practitioners were also forced to write “thought reports” every week and were not allowed to talk to each other. In order to reduce their sentences, criminal inmates collaborated with the guards to tightly monitor Falun Gong practitioners.
In the atmosphere of being constantly monitored, the practitioners suffered from extreme mental duress.
Ms. Zhou was then transferred to the No. 3 division. The guards forced practitioners to perform hard labor outside, and they became sunburned. The work load was so heavy that there was no time for them to wash their hands before lunch.
At the end of November 2005, a campaign to transform Falun Gong practitioners was initiated by the newly appointed director of the Gansu Provincial Prison Administration, Wang Zhongming.
All practitioners in the prison were locked into solitary confinement and forced to read books which slandered Falun Gong 24 hours a day. If they refused, they were severely beaten and kicked.
Ms. Zhou fell in the restroom and injured her lower back in March 2007. After laying in bed for three days, she could barely move. The guards immediately demanded that she return to work. Someone had to help her to walk to the workshop. She was made to do forced labor until she was released on October 27, 2007.
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