(Minghui.org) A resident of Nancheng County, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province, was arrested in 2019 for her faith in Falun Gong and subsequently sentenced to three years and three months. Ms. Yao Aiying was tortured brutally in Jiangxi Women’s Prison. When she was released in December 2022, she was emaciated, had injuries on her body, and had difficulties breathing. Yet the neighborhood committee officers continue to harass her, leaving her unable to live a normal life.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Yao, 59, is a retired accountant in a winery. She began to practice Falun Gong in late November 1998. Her migraines and frozen shoulder were soon cured. The teachings of Falun Gong enabled her to become more open-minded and helped her to handle her family relationships better.
Ms. Yao Aiying
After the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, Ms. Yao was sentenced three times to Jiangxi Women’s Prison for a total of 10 years and 9 months, including a 3-year term in 2003, a 4.5-year term in October 2009 and the latest term of 3 years and 3 months given in July 2020.
Below are the details of the torture that she endured during the latest prison term.
Sentenced to Three Years and Three Months
Ms. Yao was talking to two young men about Falun Gong beside a Catholic church in Nancheng County on September 10, 2019. When she gave them Falun Gong materials, the men said that they are police, and called for support. Ms. Yao was arrested and taken to Jianchang Township Police Station. The police confiscated her Falun Gong materials, router, cell phone, bills with messages about Falun Gong printed on them, and 6,000 yuan in cash. [Due to strict information censorship in China, Falun Gong practitioners use creative ways to raise awareness about the persecution, including printing messages on paper currency.]
At 6 p.m., the police ransacked Ms. Yao’s home and took away her Falun Gong books and portrait of Falun Gong’s founder. That night, Ms. Yao was detained at Fuzhou City Detention Center. When a guard ordered her to report during a roll call, she refused, and the guard handcuffed her and shackled her feet in retaliation.
Ms. Yao went on a hunger strike. On the seventh day, the political commissar and head of the detention center came to check on her. She seized this chance to explain about Falun Gong. Afterward, she was permitted not to wear the uniform or report during the roll call. She could even do the Falun Gong exercises.
In June 2020, Ms. Yao appeared in court via a video call, and she testified in her own defense. The next month, she was handled a three-year and three-month term. She appealed against the verdict but the sentence was upheld.
Deprived of Sleep and Forced to Attend Brainwashing Classes
Ms. Yao was transferred to Jiangxi Women’s Prison on August 17, 2020. She was quarantined for half a month and was deprived of sleep and forced to stand for long hours at night without being allowed to sleep, as she refused to report during roll call nor memorize the prison rules while continuing to do the Falun Gong exercises.
After half a month, Ms. Yao was sent to the First Ward. As she refused to report during the roll call or work, she was made to stand every day from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. She stood in the workshop during the day and stood in the cell during the night. She was also deprived of sleep for six months.
On the 2021 Chinese New Year's Eve, Ms. Yao was sent for brainwashing classes. One day after the Chinese New Year, a guard instructed a few well-built inmates to drag her to a corner in the workshop where there was no surveillance camera. She was pinned down and the inmates forcefully took her right hand to sign on the guarantee statements that were prepared in advance. Ms. Yao objected loudly and struggled to break free, resulting in several fingers on her right hand being broken. However, she was still forced to sign the document.
Afterward, Ms. Yao went on a hunger strike to protest and declared that the guarantee statements were void as she was forced to sign the statements against her will. The prison then intensified the persecution against her and prohibited her from washing herself or buying daily necessities. All her toilet paper and other items were confiscated from her.
Forced to Sit on Tiger Bench, Hung Up, and Threatened
In March 2021, the education chief formed a team of all the inmates who have been actively involved in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners to torture five practitioners, including Ms. Yao.
At that time, it was ten days after Ms. Yao had stopped her hunger strike, and she was very weak. These inmates first tied her to the tiger bench for 24 hours. Then they tied her hands up to a bunk bed with her standing on the concrete ground, barefooted. Her nose and mouth were smeared with mustard oil. She was not allowed to use the restroom and had to relieve herself in her pants. The inmates also threatened to force-feed her with pepper water.
Torture illustration: Tiger bench
Torture re-enactment: Handcuffed to bed
Apart from torturing Ms. Yao, the guards labeled her as a “counter-revolutionary” and threatened to intensify the persecution of her. A guard recorded Ms. Yao’s son in an attempt to use family emotion to waver her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Yao was not allowed to sleep for three days. The inmates would push her, pinch her, scratch her if she closes her eyes slightly. The torture resulted in her gradually becoming delirious and in a state of dementia. She was forced to copy a guarantee statement on March 20, 2021, and attend a brainwashing class.
On May 30, 2021, after Ms. Yao became clear-headed, she submitted her solemn declaration to void the previous statement. Her action enraged the authorities. She was tortured again with sleep deprivation. She was hung up during the day in the workshop and not allowed to use the restroom. She was also not allowed to take a shower for six days in the summer. This continued until March 2022.
Humiliated, Forced-fed, Hung Up, and Beaten; Fainted from Torture
After COVID-19 cases appeared in the prison on March 26, 2022, all inmates were taken to an outdoor tent in the male prison. The guards ordered the inmates to write “thought reports” on April 17, and Ms. Yao wrote that she wishes for everyone to understand what Falun Dafa is. The guard then punished her by making her clean the portable toilets for over 80 tents twice a day, while wearing protective goggles and gear. She sweat profusely and almost fainted.
On the fifth day, a guard humiliated Ms. Yao and threatened to push her head into the toilet. Later, the guard ordered a few inmates to write humiliating words on a piece of paper and stick it to her head. When she tried to remove the paper, two male guards violently twisted her hands to her back and her head was nearly pressed between the legs.
Ms. Yao went on a hunger strike again to protest the torture. On the tenth day, she was force-fed. The repeated force-feeding resulted in inflammation in her mouth. She was not allowed to use the restroom despite being force-fed eight bottles of water, causing her to wet her pants. Once, she had to defecate in her pants. An inmate also pinched her cheeks.
On May 18, when Ms. Yao was very weak, she was forced to march from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and do the roll call while squatting. When she refused to comply, she was hung up by the wrists to the windows, with her legs tilting at 45 degrees. The torture lasted for nearly three hours.
Once, an inmate pinned Ms. Yao to the ground and pressed her knees against Ms. Yao’s waist, resulting in severe pain in Ms. Yao’s kidneys. Another time, when Ms. Yao did not squat down to report, two inmates pulled her hair and ears, lifting her up and down. She was later tied to the window. The torture lasted the whole morning. A lot of hair was pulled out and both her ears were red and swollen. She fainted.
Another time, an inmate pinned Ms. Yao to the ground and sat on her, causing her left chest to be severely crushed. She had difficulties breathing for a long time.
On May 30, when Ms. Yao refused to sign the prison songs nor attend the brainwashing classes, an inmate hit her with a hard object from 7 a.m. to about 4 p.m., resulting in bruises all over her body. Two other inmates used the tip of the pen to stab her left chest and abdomen, while another inmate scratched and pinched her left underarm. The inmate also stepped on her feet repeatedly.
When the pandemic slowed down in June, the inmates moved back to the women’s prison. Though Ms. Yao was no longer subjected to intense persecution, she was still forced to examine the quality of woolen sweaters made in the prison. She worked for long hours every day but without pay.
The long-term torture caused injuries to Ms. Yao’s body and she has difficulties breathing and walking. She became emaciated.
Only one month after Ms. Yao was released in December 2022, two neighborhood committee officers and police officers harassed her at home. Later, the committee staffer and officials from the justice bureau went to her home again and forced her elder brother, who does not practice Falun Gong, to sign a guarantee statement on her behalf.
While serving the term, Ms. Yao was deprived of all of her social security pension, and the annual increase in her pension was also stopped. She is facing dire financial constraints while trying to start her life again.
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Category: Torture of Women
