(Minghui.org) Because Ms. Wu Xiaohong, a Falun Gong practitioner from Qiqihar City, refused to give up practicing Falun Gong, she was arrested on October 25, 2010, by officers from the Wenhualu Police Station. She was tortured during the interrogation, sentenced to seven years in the Heilongjiang Provincial Women's Prison, and released in January 2017.

She started practicing Falun Gong in 1997 and followed the Falun Gong principles of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance. She refused to give up her faith after the communist regime under Jiang Zemin started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999.

Ms. Wu Recounts Torture and Brainwashing

Several officers from the Wenhualu Police Station came to the store where I worked on October 25, 2010. They ransacked the store, confiscated my purse and house keys, and then went to ransack my home. My mother-in-law was so scared that she suffered a heart attack.

I was arrested, and upon arrival at the police station, my head was covered. In the station I was tied to an iron chair torture device. I was short of breath that night, and had to be taken to a hospital for emergency treatment.

Then they took me back to the police station for further interrogation. They made me sit on the floor with my back to an iron chair. My hands were pulled through the holes on the back of the chair and cuffed. The police tortured me, hoping I would betray other practitioners, but I refused to comply with their demands.

I was tortured in the police station for two days and taken the hospital twice for emergency treatment.

When I was in extreme pain, Wang Hongjun, head of the police station, squatted in front of me and demanded that I tell them what they wanted to know.

I said to him, “Torturing me like this, how can you bear it in your heart?”

I was taken to the Qiqihar Detention Center on the third day. However, given my poor health, I was not accepted, so I was taken to a hospital and given some injections before being transferred back to the detention center.

I practiced the exercises every day in the detention center. The inmates beat me viciously in order to stop me, and I had to stand for long hours as a punishment.

I was interrogated again and again. Han Dai and three other officers from the Wenhualu Police Station covered my face and took me to somewhere outside the detention center. They put me on an iron chair in a room that was divided by an iron fence. A group of people were there, including an official from the 610 Office.

They started torturing me in the afternoon. I was tied with my hands and legs behind me and was lifted up horizontally with a large wooden pole. My face was directly facing the ground, and I suffered excruciating pain. This torture was called “Grilling whole sheep.”

Torture illustration: “Grilling whole sheep”

In the detention center, another practitioner named Ms. Li Yaoguang and I refused to wear the prisoner uniforms, and were thus beaten by several inmates. We were handcuffed together and fitted with shackles in such a way that we could not move.

Sentenced to Heilongjiang Provincial Women's Prison

Five of us were sentenced by the Jianhua District Court on January 26, 2011, and later transferred to the Heilongjiang Provincial Women's Prison.

I was detained in the No. 9 Ward for the first four months. I was forced to sit on a small chair and listen to or watch programs that slandered Falun Gong. I was very weak and my heartbeat was not normal.

I was later transferred to No. 11 and then to the No. 12 Ward. They continued attempts to brainwash me, but were unsuccessful, as I firmly believed in Falun Gong.

I was released in January 2017. I have not yet recovered from my poor health, and I have to work to support myself.