Recent Persecution Deaths of Falun Gong Practitioners in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
(Minghui.org) To force incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith, guards at the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison selected ruthless inmates to torture the practitioners, by all means possible.
The torture methods used in the prison include violent beatings, the death bed (also known as a stretching bed, with the victim restrained to the bed in a spread eagle position), electric shocks, being suspended in the air by handcuffs, force-feedings, and involuntary drug administration.
As of December 2021, at least 31 practitioners have died from torture in the prison. At least 90% of those incarcerated were permanently injured and continue to suffer from the long-term effects after being released.
To instigate the inmates to torture the practitioners even harder, the guards gave the inmates snacks such as yogurt. The guards also denied the practitioners from using the restroom between 7:30 to 10 p.m., threatening to force everyone to clean the restroom if any practitioner broke the rule. An 80-year-old practitioner once cried when she was denied access to the restroom, yet the guards still remained tough and ordered her to relieve herself in her pants.
Below are some recent death cases due to the torture in the prison, mostly shortly before or after their release.
Mother of Two Beaten to Death While Serving Time for Her Faith
Ms. Yang Lihua, a 43-year-old Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province resident, was beaten to death by the inmates, while serving a three-year term for her faith in Falun Gong. She is survived by her husband and their two teenage children.
Ms. Yang Lihua
Ms. Yang was arrested on November 17, 2017 and sentenced to three years by the Sunwu County Court on December 26, 2017. Because she refused to do the unpaid labor at Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison, the inmates stepped on her face and beat her. Even as Ms. Yang was on the verge of death, the head of the eighth ward accused her of pretending.
On November 5, 2019, Ms. Yang’s family was notified by the prison that she was in critical condition due to an illness. When her husband, brother, and sister-in-law rushed to the hospital, she had already died.
Ms. Yang’s family demanded to see her medical record. A prison guard flashed the paperwork in front of them without allowing them to read any details. When her family asked why her body was covered with bruises, the prison guard claimed it was livor mortis.
Ms. Yang’s family requested an autopsy. But the prison authorities said that they had to ask for permission to perform an autopsy and that it would take months for the higher-ups to approve it.
The prison authorities eventually intimidated Ms. Yang’s family into signing a consent form to have her body cremated. Her loved ones brought her ashes back on November 9.
Beaten Daily During Five-year Prison Term, Woman Dies a Year After Release
After enduring multiple arrests, intense forced labor, imprisonment, and torture for her faith in Falun Gong, Ms. Li Guiyue, a Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province resident, passed away on August 6, 2021. She was 52.
Ms. Li Guiyue in her younger years
Ms. Li Guiyue after suffering the persecution
Ms. Li went to Beijing twice in 2000 to petition for her right to freedom of belief. She was arrested, beaten, and given one year of forced labor.
In May 2015, Ms. Li was arrested for passing out Falun Gong informational fliers and sentenced to five years in prison. At the Heilongjiang Women’s Prison, she was routinely beaten, made to sit on a small stool for long periods of time, insulted, and verbally abused on a daily basis.
Ms. Li was emaciated and almost unrecognizable when she was released on May 16, 2020. She suffered from body pain, muscle weakness, drowsiness, and loss of appetite.
For a year after she was released from the prison, she sometimes suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, trembling in fear while mumbling to herself. Sometimes she refused to eat with her family, but carried her bowl to the side, squatted on the ground, and quietly ate with her head lowered. She often said to herself, “They have been beating me every day! They beat me every day!” Scared and nervous, she looked around constantly and her eyes were filled with fear and sadness. Her family suspected that she was given unknown drugs while in the prison, causing irreparable damage to her physical and mental health.
After struggling with poor health for a year, Ms. Li passed away on August 6, 2021. She was 52.
Woman Dies in Prison Two Days Before Scheduled Release
Ms. Su Yunxia died while imprisoned, two days before her five-year term for practicing Falun Gong was about to expire.
Ms. Su, of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on September 7, 2016 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong on the street. Her bedridden husband went to the police station in a wheelchair with the help of Ms. Su’s niece to seek her release, only to be blocked outside.
The Daowai District Court sentenced her to a five-year prison term and a 10,000-yuan fine on March 31, 2017.
Ms. Su was scheduled to be released from the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on September 6, 2021, but she was beaten to death two days prior, before she could return home to reunite with her family. She was 67 years old.
According to an insider, the inmates beat Ms. Su on September 4, as she refused to renounce Falun Gong. The prison also refused to give her the release notice for the same reason.
After she was beaten to death, the guards covered her body with a white cloth and kept it in the hallway in the eighth ward. The inmates were very scared and didn’t dare to come out of their cells to use the restroom in the evening.
69-year-old Woman Dies Five Months After Prison Release
A Sanhe City, Hebei Province resident passed away on October 31, 2021, five months after being released from a three-year term for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Liu Yaqin was 69 years old.
Ms. Liu has been sentenced twice, for a total of seven years. She was beaten and forced to sit on a small stool for extended periods of time, in addition to many other forms of physical torture.
Ms. Liu was arrested on April 28, 2002 and later sentenced to four years. When she was taken to Heilongjiang Women’s Prison in October 2002, she was found to have tuberculosis during the physical examination, but the detention center guards forced the prison to admit her.
The prison guards strip-searched Ms. Liu and cut her hair short in order to humiliate her. She and other newly-admitted inmates were then sent to the training team. Every day in the training team, all inmates had to stand in line to wash their faces and use the toilet. They were forced to sit and squat the entire day. When Ms. Liu failed to squat, she was hit hard in the legs by the team captain and handcuffed to a heating pipe. She was also abused by a criminal inmate, instigated by the prison guards.
When Ms. Liu and fellow practitioners refused to perform forced labor, they were forced to sit for long periods of time on small stools and tortured.
The practitioners were not only frozen but also starved for the entire day. Winters are very cold in Harbin. One morning in November 2003, the freezing cold wind whistled and roared through from the north. Ms. Liu and dozens of fellow practitioners were forced to stay outdoors wearing light clothing and stand with their faces against the wall until dark. Ms. Liu was frozen for six days in a row, and another practitioner was subjected to the torture for eight days.
Ms. Liu and several practitioners suffered from various means of torture from July 28 to November 2004. During the daytime, they were handcuffed from behind and hung by the handcuffs from the top rail of bunk beds. At night, the guards wrapped their arms around the rail of the lower bunk beds and still kept them handcuffed.
Torture re-enactment: Handcuffed to the top rail of a bunk bed
Torture re-enactment: handcuffed around rail of the lower bunk bed
On their way back from the workshop one day, Ms. Liu and several practitioners refused to wear the prison uniforms and name tags. They were handcuffed from behind, with one hand up and one hand down, and suspended in the air by the handcuffs. The torture caused the practitioners extreme pain and swelling in the arms. Some practitioners could not take the pain and almost passed out.
Torture re-enactment: handcuffed from behind and hung up
During these four months, Ms. Liu was locked in an isolation room for two weeks. She was handcuffed and forced to sit on the cold floor every day. She was also insulted with foul words by two inmates. The windows of the isolation room were covered with newspaper so that the persecution would not be seen from outside.
Ms. Liu was deprived of sleep for a period of time. When she fell asleep, the prison guards poured water on her face. She was also handcuffed from behind in the laundry room and forced to stand by the wall for the entire day. One inmate poured buckets of water on the floor to make the room more damp and cold.
Ms. Liu was arrested again on July 22, 2018 and sentenced to three years at Heilongjiang Women’s Prison. She was put into the “transformation group” as soon as she arrived at the prison. In order to force her to renounce Falun Gong, five inmates were assigned to torture her.
When Ms. Liu refused to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong, the inmates forced her to sit upright on a small stool with both legs together and both hands in their laps until 2 a.m., and splashed water on her whenever she closed her eyes. They then woke her up at around 4:30 a.m. They also restricted her food and toilet use. The torture lasted for over 50 days.
Torture re-enactment: Sitting on a small stool for extended periods of time
On January 17, 2021, for comforting a 76-year-old practitioner after she was tortured, Ms. Liu was punched and slapped in the face, right under the surveillance camera. When guard Tao Shuping saw it, she smiled at inmate Yang Xu and asked her to beat Ms. Liu in the hallway away from cameras.
The torture caused bruises and severe pain in Ms. Liu’s chest. She had to grab the bed ladder to get up. It took her more than 20 days to recover.
Ms. Liu was so weak when she was released that she died five months later on October 31, 2021.
Related reports:
Recent Torture Cases of Falun Gong Practitioners at the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
Ongoing Torture and Brainwashing of Falun Gong Practitioners in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
Heilongjiang Women’s Prison Orders Inmates to Drug Falun Gong Practitioner