(Minghui.org) Ms. Wu Lixian, previously incarcerated for three years for practicing Falun Gong, was detained two more times in 2018. She left home temporarily to avoid further arrests. She returned home on the night of July 26, 2019, only to be arrested the next morning.
The Fushun City, Liaoning Province, resident has now been sentenced to four years and fined 20,000 yuan for practicing Falun Gong. She is in Division 1 of Liaoning Women’s Prison, where she has been forced to sit still on a small stool for a long time every evening after doing unpaid labor during the day.
Falun Gong is a meditation system based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to suppress the practice in July 1999, untold numbers of practitioners have been detained, imprisoned, and tortured for refusing to give up their belief.
Ms. Wu, now 62, credits Falun Gong for improving her health and helping her control her bad temper. After the persecution began, she felt compelled to tell people that Falun Gong was nothing like what the state propaganda said it was. That landed her in police custody in April 2010, followed by a three-year prison sentence in September 2010.
Officer Lan of Division 1 in Liaoning Women’s Prison once instructed two inmates to “handle” Ms. Wu. They asked if she still held firm to her belief and beat her when she said she did. After knocking her down, they'd pull her up and hit her again. A third inmate took over and continued the beating when the first two got tired.
In November 2010, three guards took Ms. Wu to a large room with no security cameras. They wouldn't let her sleep and made her stand in front of an open window with hardly any clothes on. They then poured cold water over her head and soaked her. They removed her top and forced her to stand topless by the window in the freezing cold.
They later let her sleep for a very short period of time on a metal bed with no mattress, bedding, or blanket, just a few pieces of cloth that she tried to wrap herself in. They gave her only a little food and no access to a toilet. Ms. Wu’s legs swelled up and she could hardly walk for over two months.
She had to work from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Ms. Wu was not allowed to talk to anyone, especially another Falun Gong practitioner. Even one glance would lead to a beating or humiliation. To protest the mistreatment, Ms. Wu did the Falun Gong exercises in front of over 200 detainees who were working. That landed her in solitary confinement. When she insisted on doing the exercises there, she was handcuffed twice.
When Ms. Wu got very weak, a guard asked her if she still wanted to practice Falun Gong. She said she did, so the guard kept Ms. Wu in solitary confinement for another three months. As a result of torture and mental stress, she was often in a daze. She could not squat or stand up and often vomited. She ended up in the hospital for emergency treatment three times.
When Ms. Wu was released on April 16, 2013, she had injuries all over her body.
Ms. Wu was arrested three more times between April 2018 and July 2019.
The first time was on April 24, 2018. Peng Yue and Wei Zhenxing from Fushun Police Department, along with officers from Jianshe Police Station, arrested Ms. Wu at home with no explanations. Nine other Falun Gong practitioners were also arrested around the same time. After being held in Fushun Detention Center for 37 days, Ms. Wu and four other practitioners were released.
Ms. Wu was seized again on September 29, 2018, when she was talking with someone about Falun Gong. The arresting officer from Guangming Police Station took her to Fushun Detention Center later that day.
When Ms. Wu exhibited symptoms of heart failure, a guard asked the detention center doctor if she could die. The doctor said that Ms. Jin Shunnu, another detained practitioner, had died earlier that morning, October 10, 2018.
Ms. Wu was thus released on bail that day due to her poor health. Officials from Wanghua Procuratorate and Wanghua Court then harassed her at home many times. Even before she made a full recovery, she was ordered to appear in court. When officials continued to harass her following the hearing, Ms. Wu decided she had to leave home.
Several months passed and Ms. Wu was worried about her husband. She returned home on the night of July 26, 2019, only for the police to arrest her around 8 a.m. the next morning. She was taken to Fushun Detention Center in handcuffs that afternoon.
It is unclear when Ms. Wu was sentenced to four years in prison following her latest arrest. Her husband and son worry that she may be tortured again in prison and are deeply concerned about her wellbeing.
Liaoning Province: Ms. Wu Lixian Returns Home After Three Years of Torture and Illegal Imprisonment