(Minghui.org) A Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province resident has been subjected to various forms of abuse since she was admitted to prison in June 2022 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Liu Jinping, around 42, was arrested at home on May 14, 2021. She stood trial in the Xiangyang District Court on December 31, 2021, and was sentenced to 3.5 years and fined 15,000 yuan on January 6, 2022. She was taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Harbin, more than 200 miles away from Jiamusi) in June 2022. She has since been held in the strict management division, where newly admitted Falun Gong practitioners are held.
Ms. Liu Jinping
Abused in Prison
The prison guards assigned inmates to watch Ms. Liu around the clock. While she was held in Team Five of the strict management division, fraudster Li Guimei and drug dealer Huang Tingting, both serving 15 years for their respective crimes, abused Ms. Liu in an attempt to make her renounce Falun Gong. Huang constantly beat her. Li slapped her face with shoes and deprived her of sleep for five straight nights. They also did not allow her to use the restroom, causing her to become incontinent six months after she was admitted to prison.
Guard-in-charge Wang Xin turned a blind eye to Ms. Liu’s abuse. Her family filed complaints with the appeals office in the prison and were told, “Do you know how many inmates there are? More than 4,000! When there aren’t enough guards to go around, we must have inmates ‘take care of’ Falun Gong practitioners!”
Ms. Liu was reassigned to Team Ten in the strict management division around August 2023 and continued to be abused at the hands of inmates assigned to monitor her. Inmate Yang Min was seen slapping her in the face. At night, several inmates screamed into her ears so she could not sleep. She suffered headaches as a result.
Denied Family Visits for About a Year, Appeal Withheld by Prison Guards
In addition to the abuse, Ms. Liu was also denied all forms of communication with her family for about a year since her prison admission. Her loved ones filed complaints with the prison and relevant government agencies but were not allowed to see her until around June 2023. The visits were not in-person. Her family was required to go to their local Jiao District Judicial Bureau in Jiamusi City in order to to have virtual meetings with her.
During one virtual meeting, Ms. Liu asked her family how to file an appeal and was immediately stopped by the guards monitoring the meeting. From October to December 2023, she was denied virtual visits with her family. The Jiao District Judicial Bureau claimed that they had some equipment issues and could not conduct virtual meetings.
When the prison finally resumed the virtual meetings in January 2024, Ms. Liu told her family that she wrote her appeal but the prison guards refused to mail it. Her parents saw her virtually again on February 1, 2024, and she complained about the continued abuse in the prison. The elderly couple realized that their daughter must have been in a really bad shape as a result of the abuse from October to December 2023 so the prison did not want them to see her.
Family’s Earlier Efforts to Seek Justice for Her
Because Ms. Liu refused to renounce Falun Gong, the prison authorities barred her family from calling or visiting her for about a year. Her family also mailed two letters to her, but did receive any replies. They suspected she may not have been given those letters. Concerned about Ms. Liu’s safety, her family called the prison and Heilongjiang Province Prison Administration Bureau many times, but no one answered their calls.
Ms. Liu’s family filed a request with the prison on November 19, 2022, requesting them to publicize information about Ms. Liu’s current situation. The prison claimed that they couldn’t respond within the time frame requested. The family appealed to several provincial level bureaus, but were repeatedly given the run-around.
On January 4, 2023, Ms. Liu’s family received a call from the aforementioned guard-in-charge Wang, who claimed that Ms. Liu didn’t have daily necessities, specifically toothpaste and toilet paper. She had to borrow the items from her cellmates. Wang also said that Ms. Liu soiled her pants every day and they had to remove her pants and apply iodine solution on her.
Wang’s words left the family deeply concerned. Ms. Liu was only 42 and she was perfectly healthy before she was arrested. How could she become incontinent in just a few months in the prison? Why would the prison force her to renounce Falun Gong? What’s the legal basis for it? The family also found out there was a 3,170 yuan balance on her account and they wondered why she wasn’t allowed to use the money to purchase necessities.
Worried about Ms. Liu, her family traveled a long way twice to the prison to visit her, but were stopped by the security at the entrance both times.
The family made another request to the prison on March 15, 2023, demanding to know: 1) The legal basis for the prison to order Ms. Liu to renounce Falun Gong; 2) The specific measures used to try to force her to give up her belief; 3) The personnel involved, their positions and professional qualifications; 4) The legal basis for the prison to include inmates in the transformation process.
As the prison never responded to the family, they filed a motion with the provincial administrative reconsideration office on May 5, 2023, as well as complaints with the provincial prison administration bureau, the provincial government, provincial procuratorate and the provincial Department of Justice.
The prison later contacted the family, and said their request had been closed. But the family said they never received any information from the prison. The person who called them later responded that the information they requested were state secrets and couldn’t be released.
The family demanded a written response from the prison, instead of verbal communication, but the prison rejected their request without providing any explanation. The family also demanded the prison address their question of whether Ms. Liu was tortured there, but the prison did not respond.
The family received a call from their township government around June 2023, ordering them to stop mailing letters to various offices. They insisted that as long as the persecution continues, they wouldn’t stop seeking justice for their loved one.
The prison eventually allowed Ms. Liu’s family to have virtual visits with her starting on an unknown date.
Related Reports:
Family's Uphill Battle Seeking Justice for Their Loved One Wrongfully Imprisoned for Her Faith
Heilongjiang Woman’s Appeal of Unjust Sentence Dismissed
Heilongjiang Woman Sentenced to 3.5 Years for Her Faith
Woman Detained for Her Faith, Family Seeking Justice for Her
Heilongjiang Woman Beaten During Interrogation, Faces Prosecution for Her Faith
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Category: Torture of Women
