(Minghui.org) A resident of Zhangshu City, Jiangxi Province, was arrested in September 2017 and sentenced to three years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. While imprisoned, she was subjected to various torture methods, including sleep deprivation, being stripped naked and beaten, having her eyes taped shut, being forced to step on a sadhu board (a board with nails through it), being hung up by her wrists, and having her mouth scrubbed with a toilet brush.
Ms. Lyu Sanxiu
Ms. Lyu Sanxiu, 75, was a former employee at a smelting plant. Before she practiced Falun Gong, she had stomach trouble for over ten years, especially frequent stomach ulcers. She had severe hemorrhoids when she was in her 30s and often had blood in her stool. She also had many other ailments including arthritis, mastitis, heart disease and bronchitis. In October 1996, Ms. Lyu started practicing Falun Gong and her health improved.
After the persecution of Falun Gong started, because she refused to renounce her faith, Ms. Lyu was sentenced twice to three years and given two forced labor camp terms for a total of five years. At the Jiangxi Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp, she was subjected to different forms of torture and force-fed with nerve-damaging drugs.
Latest Three-year Sentence
On September 2, 2017, Ms. Lyu was talking to locals about Falun Gong when she was arrested and taken to the police station. The police ransacked her home and confiscated ten thousand dollars worth of cash and personal items.
Ms. Lyu was detained at the Zhangshu Detention Center and told that she would be detained for 15 days. However, after more than 20 days, the police didn’t release her, but took her to the Yichun Detention Center. The guards there threatened that they would get her sentenced to three years in prison if she didn’t give up practicing Falun Gong. Shortly after that, Ms. Lyu was handed the prison sentence. She was taken to the Jiangxi Province Women’s Prison in the spring of 2018.
Tortured in Jiangxi Women’s Prison
The prison guards forced Ms. Lyu to watch videos and read materials that slandered Falun Gong. She was beaten and threatened when she refused. A guard threatened her, telling Ms. Lyu that she'd received training as a special agent and she would hang her up for three days and torture her to death if she didn’t renounce Falun Gong.
In an attempt to force Ms. Lyu to renounce her faith, she was monitored around the clock, forced to stand for extended periods, and deprived of sleep for the next three months. During the day, she had to stand in a corner of the workshop. At night, she was forced to extend her arms out and was handcuffed to two bed frames in her cell. The guards didn’t allow her to use the restroom and gave her very little to eat every day, just a small amount of rice.
The prison sent Ms. Lyu to “transformation” classes between March and April 2020 to force her to renounce her faith. The education chief, guards, and two inmates were involved in “transforming” Ms. Lyu.
To avoid being held responsible for the abuse inflicted on her, the guards tried to force Ms. Lyu to sign a pre-written will, which stated that if she died, the guards and prison would not be responsible as it was her own decision not to eat. When Ms. Lyu refused to sign the will, the guards grabbed her hand and forced her to sign it.
The guards and inmates changed shifts once every two hours around the clock and continued to try to force Ms. Lyu to renounce her faith. They forced her to walk on a board covered with nails and sprayed her eyes, nose, and mouth with an unknown drug if she stopped walking. The guards subjected her to sleep deprivation at night. In order to restrict her from using the restroom, they provided her with very little food, and sometimes they gave her no food.
For more than 10 days while in the “transformation” class, Ms. Lyu was made to do extensive physical training. While she was squatting, the inmates kicked her legs, causing her to have difficulty walking. The inmates also used a toilet brush to scrub her mouth, causing her mouth to tear.
Because Ms. Lyu smiled at another Falun Gong practitioner when she saw her in the prison, both practitioners were dragged to the guards’ restroom and beaten. She was also forced to sign a document to guarantee that she would not stage a hunger strike.
A guard taped Ms. Lyu’s eyes shut and threatened to leave the tape on for a week. When the education chief instructed someone to remove the tape on the fifth day, her eyes were in excruciating pain and she could not look at anything. The chief also hung Ms. Lyu up by her wrists with her hands tied behind her back.
Torture re-enactment: Handcuffed behind the back and hung up
When Ms. Lyu was released in early September 2020, she was emaciated and had severe vision loss in both eyes, difficulty walking, body pain, and difficulty sleeping.
Previous Imprisonment and Forced Labor Camp Term
On October 27, 1999, Ms. Lyu was arrested and detained in the Beijing Third Detention Center after she went to Beijing to appeal. Liu Jianqiu from the Zhangshu City Police Department took her back to the local detention center six days after she went on a hunger strike. On January 18, 2000, Ms. Lyu was sent to the provincial women’s prison after she was sentenced to three years.
At the end of October 2002 when Ms. Lyu’s term expired, the police and staff from the local 610 Office gave her another three years in the forced labor camp because she refused to renounce her faith.
At the labor camp, when Ms. Lyu refused to watch videos or read books that slandered Falun Gong, the inmates wrapped a pillowcase around her head, held her down on her bed and beat her.
As she remained firm in her belief, the police put toxic substances in her food, causing her to feel thirsty, nauseous, and delirious five minutes after she ate. A month later, she was only semi-conscious and did not know how to take care of herself when her menses came. She also put her hands in shoes and crawled on the floor, kicking the cell and shouting to be released. The guards only laughed at her.
One day, Ms. Lyu climbed out of the window and fell, resulting in a broken lumbar and injured feet.
She returned home in May 2005 and resumed practicing Falun Gong. Shortly after, she recovered.
Ms. Lyu was arrested again in June 2007. She was held in a detention center for seven days and handed another two years of forced labor. Because she refused to give up her belief, her term was extended for over 20 days, and she was released on July 12, 2009.
Related reports:
Woman Arrested Once Again After Three Years of Imprisonment and Five Years of Forced Labor
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Category: Torture of Women
