(Minghui.org)

Chinese Name: 吴孟华Gender: FemaleAge: 46City: N/AProvince: BeijingOccupation: Senior engineer with China Southern AirlinesDate of Death: July 6, 2021Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 14, 2020Most Recent Place of Detention: A detention center in Beijing

A senior engineer with China Southern Airlines in Beijing passed away on July 6, 2021, after suffering repeated harassment by the authorities and declining health as a result of being tortured in custody.

Ms. Wu Menghua was arrested on February 14, 2020, after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Her home was ransacked and she was taken to the Desheng Police Station for interrogation.

When she refused to let the police take her fingerprints, five officers kicked her legs until she fell down. Then they grabbed her hands and took her fingerprints. Ms. Wu was taken to an unknown location and handcuffed to a chair for over 30 hours.

Before admitting Ms. Wu to a detention center, the police took her to a hospital for a physical exam. When she started telling the nurse and other patients about the persecution of Falun Gong, the police taped her mouth shut.

Three days later, Ms. Wu was released on bail due to her poor health. She returned to her mother’s home in her own neighborhood. Her hands were terribly swollen. Her face and arms had multiple injuries. She was unable to lift her arms. Her legs also became swollen days later and she began to have blood in her stool.

Not wanting her family to worry about her, Ms. Wu never told them what torture she suffered in the police station, only mentioning that it was something most people would be unable to bear.

The police later submitted her case to the Xicheng District Procuratorate. The prosecutor dismissed her case in late 2020.

The local residential committee and police constantly harassed Ms. Wu after she returned home. They posted two security guards outside of her apartment around the clock for three months and didn’t let her go out. Her mother, who lived with her, was also barred from going out for over two months. They had to depend on Ms. Wu’s younger sister, who lived in the same neighborhood, to deliver food and daily necessities to them.

When Liu Yi of the residential committee and police officer Zhang harassed Ms. Wu and her mother and sister, Ms. Wu tried to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to them and urge them not to participate in the persecution, but they refused to listen and verbally abused her.

Ms. Wu later moved back to her own home. Liu and Zhang continued to harass her and verbally abused her when she asked them not to come anymore.

After the 2021 Chinese New Year, Zhang returned a few more times to harass Ms. Wu. The mental distress caused her health to decline very quickly.

During the annual National People’s Congress and the National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in March, Ms. Wu was suffering from severe swelling of her legs. She was so weak that she couldn’t get downstairs. Yet Zhang still broke into her home, verbally abused her, and searched her residence for Falun Gong materials. Two security guards stayed outside of her apartment for over ten days, leaving only after the two sessions ended.

Despite Ms. Wu’s deteriorating health, Zhang and residential committee staff members kept harassing her.

Unable to endure the mental distress anymore, Ms. Wu moved out of town. Her mother went with her, because she was no longer able to take care of herself. When the police couldn’t find her, they harassed her sister to try to find out where she was. The police threatened to put Ms. Wu on the “Wanted” list in order to find her.

Ms. Wu passed away on July 6, 2021. She was 46.