(Minghui.org) An imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner who is suffering from high blood pressure has been denied family visits and subjected to strict management for holding firm to her faith, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Yang Jie was admitted to Zhejiang Women's Prison in March 2019 to serve a two year and eight month term. The Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province resident previously served two terms for a total of eleven years in prison, as well as two years of forced labor, for not renouncing her faith.
Ms. Yang's latest arrest on July 30, 2018 came only nine months after she was released from a previous five-year prison. The police attempted to block her from filing a complaint against her previous prison sentences and tortures.
Ms. Yang's arrest and prison term left her 88-year-old ill father, a former professor of materials science at Zhejiang University, home alone with no one to care for him.
Ms. Yang's mother, Ms. Tang Kai, was a senior construction engineer. She used to suffer from breast cancer and kidney failure and was told that she had only a few months to live. She was then introduced to Falun Gong. Her cancer was soon cured, and she looks much younger.
After the communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Tang was arrested for appealing for her faith in Beijing. She was detained for 30 days and released on bail for medical reasons. She was subsequently repeatedly harassed and arrested. She eventually gave up practicing Falun Gong against her will. Her cancer recurred and she passed away in 2012.
Ms. Yang was serving time in prison during her mother's final days, but she was not allowed to see her mother for the last time.
Ms. Yang, a former employee of the Zhejiang Province Medicine and Health Products Import and Export Company, was first arrested on April 1, 2005 after being reported for passing out Falun Gong informational materials. The police used Falun Gong materials confiscated from her home as evidence against her. She was sentenced to six years in Zhejiang Women's Prison.
The prison guards beat her with electric batons, didn't allow her to use the restroom when she was menstruating, and stuffed her mouth with rags. When Ms. Yang refused to admit she was a criminal, the prison guards forced her to stand for a long time, deprived her of sleep, and forced her to do slave labor.
The inmates monitored her around the clock and forced her to watch propaganda videos attacking Falun Gong. When she refused to comply with prison regulations designed to humiliate Falun Gong practitioners, the guards implicated other inmates and didn't allow them to sleep or use the restroom. As a result, many inmates harbored hatred against her.
Shortly after she was released, Ms. Yang was arrested again in November 2012 for distributing materials about Falun Gong and then sentenced to a five year prison term.
The prison guards once deprived her of sleep for ten days and forced her to watch videos slandering Falun Gong.
The guards didn't allow her to take showers or change clothes for a year. She had a strong odor and some inmates were instructed by the guards to verbally abuse her. When some kindhearted inmates washed her clothes for her, they were punished and refrained from helping her again.
The guards once locked her in solitary confinement for more than two months, from early November to mid January. She was given only a thin comforter and several pieces of thin clothing. She was left to endure the freezing temperatures, without heat, during the coldest winter that Hangzhou City had seen for many years.
At one time, the guards laced her food with nerve-damaging drugs. She suffered from a dizziness and had an abnormal urine color. Upon finding out what happened, she started a hunger strike in protest. Her blood pressure dropped to a dangerously low level and she was rushed to the local Qinchun Hospital. The prison authorities attempted to transfer her to a mental hospital for further persecution, but the doctor at Qinchun Hospital defied the order after Ms. Yang talked to him about the nature of Falun Gong.
Zhejiang Woman Arrested Again for Seeking Justice for Past Wrongful Sentences
Ms. Yang Jie Held in Solitary Confinement at Zhejiang Women’s Prison