(Minghui.org) A woman from Sichuan Province has suffered a nightmare of arrests, incarceration and torture for refusing to give up her belief in Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa). Over the past 17 years of relentless persecution, Ms. Dong Yuying from Ziyang City has been arrested on 10 different occasions. She was twice put in a forced labor camp, twice in brainwashing facilities, and once sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. She has endured physical abuse and torture with psychotropic drugs
In November 2016 Ms. Dong filed a lawsuit against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin, who started the illegal persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. She demanded that the Supreme People's Procuratorate investigate Jiang's crimes and bring him to justice.
The following is Ms. Dong's personal account from her criminal complaint.
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A Life-changing Practice
I used to suffer from a number of incurable illnesses and had given up on life when I happened to run into an acquaintance who had once had been as ill as I was. Now she looked much younger, with a rosy complexion. I asked her what kind of miracle pill she had taken to regain her health, and she told me about the practice of Falun Gong, a traditional cultivation practice that includes gentle exercises and emphasizes living by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.
A few days after I began to practice Falun Gong, I had bloody stools for two weeks, yet I gained weight and felt much better. In two months, all my illnesses disappeared, my wrinkles lessened, and my complexion became rosy. My temperament improved and my family embraced the practice.
First Arrest: Detention for Ten Days
Not long after the persecution of Falun Gong began, I had some Falun Gong literature with me that I wanted to give to the local police department to help them understand that the persecution was wrong. The Domestic Security authorities arrested me in February 2000 and locked me in a small room littered with urine and feces. I was frequently interrogated and was pressured to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong.
Second Arrest: Detention for 17 Days
I did the Falun Gong exercises in a public place in May 2000. For this the police arrested and detained me for 17 days.
Third Arrest: Three Months in Detention and Forced Labor Camp
The police arrested me in December 2000 when I peacefully protested the persecution in Beijing. They transferred me back to Ziyang and held me in the Lianhuashan Detention Center. They tried to brainwash me with materials that slandered Falun Gong.
The police and the 610 Office decided to put me in a forced labor camp for 18 months. The authorities at Nanmusi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zizhong City refused to take me because I failed the physical. I was sent back to the detention center and was later released in March 2001.
Fourth Arrest: Confinement in Drug Rehabilitation Center
I stayed with a relative in September 2002. Early one morning the police broke into my relative's house and arrested me. The armed officers confiscated a lot of Falun Gong literature that we had.
A policeman pointed a gun at my nephew and tied him up with rope. Another handcuffed my 70-year-old relative and arrested him as well. The police beat me at the police station while I was still handcuffed. I wasn't allowed to sleep or use the toilet for 36 hours. My shoulder was dislocated as a result of the abuse.
Another practitioner and I went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse in the drug rehabilitation center. After ten days the chief of the center handcuffed me to a metal railing. He grabbed me by the hair and shoved my head between two iron rails.
I fainted due to the pain and woke up with a swollen head. I had a heart attack not long afterwards and went into shock for hours.
The practitioner who arrived with me died from the torture. They eventually released me.
Fifth Arrest: 18 Months of Forced Labor
Someone reported me to the police in October 2002 when I was giving out Falun Gong literature The police arrested and locked me up at the Shiling Police Station for a month before transferring me to the Nanmusi Women's Forced Labor Camp. Camp authorities refused to take me because of my heart condition. The police released me ten days later and had me serve my sentence outside the camp.
Sixth Arrest: Detention for a Month
I went to a friend's house in January 2004. A few minutes after I sat down, the police charged into the house and arrested me for “holding an illegal gathering.” I was interrogated and detained for a month.
Seventh Arrest: Detention for a Month
In June 2004 the police arrested me again and beat me until I fell unconscious. After I came to, they interrogated me overnight. I was handcuffed for four days and not allowed to sleep or use the toilet. During this whole time the police verbally abused and threatened to kill me. I was put in the Yanjiang District Detention Center for a month and released on probation awaiting trial.
Eighth Arrest: Tortured with Drugs in a Brainwashing Center
I once recommended Falun Gong to a sick person and was arrested in February 2007. A month later I was transferred from the Ziyang Detention Center to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center, where I was injected with nerve-damaging drugs.
After the injection, I started hallucinating and became manic, tense, and scared. My heart and stomach were cramping. I had to focus all my willpower not to lose my mind.
The next day, on March 17, 2007, after I finished eating I noticed white powder in the food brought to me by the authorities. I soon became drowsy, tense and anxious. The constant poisoning resulted in the deterioration of my physical and mental health.
I was taken to a hospital one day. The next day a doctor from the hospital brought bags of black liquid to the brainwashing center and injected me with these drugs.
My vision was blurred and I was hallucinating. I heard noises and my head felt like it was splitting open. I became anxious and terrified and tried very hard not to lose my mind.
Even two years later, I still suffered from those symptoms. If I hadn't tried to fight it so hard, I might have gone crazy or even died. When I was released, my family couldn't recognize me. My hair had turned completely gray and my memory was hazy.
Ninth Arrest: Six Months in Brainwashing Center
When I went outside to take out the garbage one morning in April 2010, several men came out of nowhere and charged into my house. They ransacked the place and confiscated my Falun Gong literature and computer. I was taken to the Ererhu Brainwashing Center and subjected to continuous abuse for six months.
Tenth Arrest: Tortured in Shanghai Women's Prison
A dozen policemen broke into my rental apartment in February 2013 and arrested me. The Jiading District Court sentenced me to three years and six months for practicing Falun Gong and sent me to the Shanghai Women's Prison in March 2014.
From mid-September to the end of November in 2014 I was held in solitary confinement. To increase my torment, the staff turned the volume of a radio to the highest level, set it right next to me, and played it all day.
To physically torture me, a guard ordered other prisoners to lift me up and then drop me. I would lose consciousness and when I woke up, the prisoners would blast the radio next to my ear. They did this to further aggravate my discomfort, knowing that I had dangerously high blood pressure. I was given little food at each meal and was malnourished.
I was put in solitary confinement again for three weeks in 2015. For over a week in there I was forced to wear restraining belts 24/7, including when I slept, when I ate, and when I used the toilet.
The Shanghai Prison Bureau ordered its prisons to force all imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief in May 2015. For eight months, from June 2015 to the end of February 2016, I was relentlessly tortured by six prisoners.
From 5:30 a.m. to midnight I was physically tormented and verbally abused. After that I had to transcribe some documents for two to three hours. When I went to bed, the prisoners would kick me to wake me up to torture me some more. I was repeatedly viciously beaten until I fell unconscious in the torture room.
I had new injuries every day and there were always bloodstains on my clothes. The bruises and swelling never went away. Even today my arms and legs have not recovered. I can barely walk and the pain persists. I cannot bend my left arm and I feel lacerating pain in my back when I sit down.
Related report:The Suffering of Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Dong Yuying
Background
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners over the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
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