(Minghui.org) “Someone is giving us the green light. I’m not afraid at all, even if I torture you to death,” a drug addict inmate claimed when beating Ms. Zhang Qinghua, who is over 60.
At the Liaoning Women’s Prison, several inmates, under the guards’ direction, beat and abused Ms. Zhang as their daily routine for two months.
Ms. Zhang, a resident of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, was arrested in November 2016 for distributing calendars with messages about Falun Gong, an ancient mind-body Buddhist practice that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been persecuting since 1999.
She was sentenced to three years in Liaoning Women’s Prison on January 9, 2017.
This prison is notorious for its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. In 2018 alone, 251 practitioners were imprisoned, and 4 were tortured to death.
Physical Abuse and Torture
Ms. Zhang spent her first two nightmarish months at Team Ten of the First Division in the prison. Shi Jing was the division manager, and Gao Wa was the guards’ lead.
In promising a term reduction reward, inmates were instigated by Shi to torture practitioners, such as beating them, pouring cold water on them, and piercing their fingernails with long needles.
Ms. Zhang was forced to sit on a stool for a long time on her first day in prison. A few inmates asked her to write a statement promising to give up her faith, but she refused.
The inmates took her to a storage room, which didn’t have a surveillance camera. Two inmates took turns slapping her in the face. When they grew tired, they stripped her naked and opened the window to expose her to the cold winter air. They also wrote the Falun Gong founder’s name on her breast, back, private part, and bottom, to insult her.
Torture Illustration: Exposing to Cold Air
Those inmates dragged her into a factory’s warehouse the next day. She shouted, “Falun Gong is good!” The inmates slapped her face and hit her chest.
She went on a hunger strike to protest the torture. Inmates pushed her to the ground and pinched her nose to force-feed her. Afterward, two inmates held her feet and another one sat on her stomach and slapped her face while cursing Falun Gong’s founder.
The inmates also tried to suffocate her, covering her head with a plastic bag, until her lips turned purple and face pale.
A drug addict inmate Du Jinjuan claimed that they had nothing to fear from the authorities, even if they murdered her. Du also said, “You can sue us wherever you want to. My family members are working in the prison.”
Torture Illustration: Suffocation
The inmates force-fed Ms. Zhang at the warehouse on another day. They pushed her down on the ground, stabbed her arms and body with a foot-and-a-half-long needle. Ms. Zhang was shaking in pain and lost feeling in her feet. The inmates also grabbed her finger to put fingerprints on a statement that she would stop practicing Falun Gong.
Deprived of Daily Necessities
Ms. Zhang was transferred to Team Two at the First Division, two months later.
For writing about how she was tortured, the division manager Li Xiaoting froze her money account at the prison and prohibited her from buying daily necessities until she was released.
Ms. Zhang could not buy toilet paper, soap, or toothpaste.
She couldn’t get any fruit. Cafeteria staff served Falun Gong practitioners only a half spoon of vegetables while giving others a full spoon.
No inmate in Team No. 2 was allowed to share their supplies with any practitioner, including Ms. Zhang.
During a family members' visit in 2019, a guard asked Ms. Zhang why she had difficulty walking. Ms. Zhang said that it was due to being beaten. Division manager Li Xiaoting shouted, “Nobody beat you!”
Since Ms. Zhang refused to do the unpaid labor work, the inmate in charge of the work cursed her, claiming that she would curse her even if she receives retribution.
Related Reports:
Appeal Rejected, Woman in Her 60s Confined to Same Prison for a Second Term
53 Older Falun Gong Practitioners Still Held in Liaoning Women’s Prison for Their Faith
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