Belated News: Woman Dies a Month After Being Imprisoned
(Minghui.org) Ms. Jiang Chunxian, 34, died on February 19, 2004, one month after she was admitted to prison to serve an 8-year term for practicing Falun Gong. Her family noticed that her back was severely bruised and that there were two bloody spots on her inner thighs, indicating signs of torture.
After the Chinese Communist Party began the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Jiang, of Dehui City, Jilin Province, lost her freedom and eventually her life for refusing to renounce her faith.
Arrest and Torture
Ms. Jiang took up Falun Gong in 1998. She followed the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance in her daily life. Her family and neighbors knew her as a filial daughter-in-law who was kind and forgiving. She never once argued with her in-laws after years of marriage and got along well with people in her community.
After the persecution started in July 1999, the police frequently harassed her. The police from Luyuan District Police Department in Changchun City (which oversees Dehui) arrested Ms. Jiang at home on November 7, 2002.
In the police department, Ms. Jiang was tortured while being interrogated. She was hung up by her wrists, with her toes barely touching the ground. This caused extreme pain in her wrists and shoulders. The police then transferred her to Shuangyuang Detention Center and tortured her for a month before taking her to the Dehui Detention Center.
Between September and November 2002, officers from Dehui City Police Department and Luyuan District Police Department arrested 12 other Falun Gong practitioners in Dehui City.
Torture reenactment: The Hang-up torture
At Dehui Detention Center, Mr. Jiang went on a hunger strike between March and April 2003 to protest the arbitrary detention. Director Ding Richao, deputy director Liu Yuhu, officer Liu Chao, and detention center doctor Li Yazhou, tied Ms. Jiang to a metal chair with belts and force-fed her. While her hands and legs were tied, they slapped her in the face, stomped on her toes, and cursed her. The doctor, while inserting a feeding tube into her stomach, purposely moved it back and forth with force to hurt her.
Torture illustration: Force-feeding
The long-term physical torture took a toll on her health. She developed a bacterial infection in her abdominal cavity and could barely breathe at times. The abdominal pain prevented her from sleeping or eating properly. Her weight quickly dropped and she became emaciated.
Extended Detention and Secret Trial
Despite a new ruling by the Jilin Provincial People’s Procuratorate that the authorities can’t detain suspects longer than nine months before they are sentenced, Ms. Jiang was detained in Dehui Detention Center for a year until she was tried on November 14, 2003. The authorities at the detention center refused to release her or approve her medical bail, despite her failing health.
In the morning of the trial, there were many police vehicles parked near the courtroom. The front gate and both sides of the courtroom were blocked by the police and armed officers. Even the top of the building was filled with officers.
Ms. Jiang and 12 other practitioners were tried in two separate hearings that morning. Some of the practitioners were carried into the courtroom as they were tortured to the point that they could not walk or sit up, not to mention having the strength to properly defend themselves. The judge also frequently interrupted the practitioners who were still able to defend themselves.
Each family member of the practitioners attending the hearing was closely watched by two guards. They weren’t allowed to talk or even turn around to look at their loved ones, whom they hadn’t seen for a year.
The judge sentenced the 13 practitioners to 3 to 12 years on December 18, 2003, after 13 months of detention.
Mr. Sun Qian was sentenced to 12 years; Ms. Liu Dianling to 11 years; Mr. Zhang Wenfeng to 10 years; Mr. Zou Jibin to 9 years; Ms. Jiang to 8 years; Ms. Hu Jie, Ms. Jia Yunxia, and Ms. Yang Jun to 7 years each; Ms. Zhang Xiaoyan and Mr. Wei Guangxue to 6 years each; Mr. Lin Hongfei to 4 years; Mr. Jiang Wenbin and Mr. Liu Baijun to 3 years each.
The practitioners filed an appeal. The judge at the Changchun Intermediate Court upheld the lower court’s decisions on January 15, 2004. According to a family member present at the hearing of the appeal case, the court officers would not let the practitioners speak.
Ms. Jiang was taken to Heizuizi Women’s Prison on the same day of the higher court’s ruling.
Deceased one Month After Being Imprisoned
The prison refused to accept Ms. Jiang initially, because she was ill and failed the physical exam. Pressured by the Dehui City 610 Office and Political and Legal Affairs Committees (two agencies tasked with overseeing the persecution), the Dehui City Court issued an order and forced the prison to take Ms. Jiang.
When Ms. Jiang’s family visited her on January 30, 2004, she seemed alert and in good spirits, though she looked pale and said she was having blood in her stool.
Ms. Jiang seemed emaciated and weak when her family visited her a week later. The family was so worried that they visited the third time on February 18. By then, Ms. Jiang was rolled out in a wheelchair and could barely speak. The family requested medical parole but the prison guards denied it, saying that she had not served half of her term.
Around midnight on February 19, the prison authorities informed the family that Ms. Jiang had passed away. They claimed that she was rushed to the hospital that afternoon and died half an hour later from sudden cardiac arrest. The family suspected that she was never hospitalized because they saw her body in the prison and she didn’t have a history of heart problems.
The family checked her remains and discovered a large area of bruises on her back and two large bloody spots on her inner thighs. They believed that she was tortured before she died. The prison authorities dodged the family’s questions and forced them to cremate her body without an autopsy.
The people who were responsible for Ms. Jiang’s death were the then wardens Xu Guangsheng (徐广生), Gao Mingya (高明雅), Wang Jie (王杰), and the then chief of hygiene Gong Yunxia (宫云侠).
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