(Minghui.org) It was learned in mid-March 2024 that a 69-year-old resident of Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province had been sentenced to three years for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Lyu Yongzhen was arrested on February 20, 2023 by agents from the Erdao District Domestic Security Office. She was initially held at the Weizigou Lockup, but is currently awaiting prison transfer at the Changchun City Supervision Center. It is unclear when she was indicted, tried, or sentenced.
This is not the first time that Ms. Lyu has been targeted for her faith. She was given three years of forced labor following her arrest in 2001 and sentenced to nine years after another arrest in 2008. She was taken straight to a detention facility as soon as she completed her prison sentence on February 27, 2017. She escaped days later on March 6 and sought shelter at the home of another practitioner, Ms. Sun Shiying, who along with her two adult children were later each sentenced to two and a half years in prison for “harboring a criminal.”
Three Years of Forced Labor (2001-2004)
Ms. Lyu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in June 2000 and was arrested. She was brutally beaten when she refused to reveal her identity. After two months of detention at the Qianmen Detention Center in Beijing, her local Xining Police Station picked her up and took her to the Liaoyuan City Detention Center. She was given three years of forced labor in September 2000 and taken to the Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp in Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province.
The labor camp declined to admit Ms. Lyu after she failed the required physical examination. The Liaoyuan police refused to release her and took her to a brainwashing center. She held firm to her faith and was released a few days later.
Her husband feared being implicated and divorced her shortly afterwards.
In early 2001, Ms. Lyu visited a practitioner in nearby Liuhe County, who had just been released from a labor camp and gave him a few articles written by Master Li Hongzhi (the founder of Falun Gong). She did not know that the person had renounced Falun Gong in the labor camp, so she was shocked when he called the police to report her on the spot. She immediately left, but was seized on the way home. The three arresting officers from the Liunan Township Police Station confiscated her Falun Gong materials and took her to the Liuhe County Detention Center.
Ms. Lyu went on a hunger strike in protest and was force fed on the ninth day. Several inmates held her down, and the detention center doctor inserted a thick feeding tube into her nostril. He fed her corn paste loaded with salt until she threw up bloody contents.
Several police officers came to the detention center one day and ordered her to renounce Falun Gong. She firmly said no.
Ms. Lyu had an abnormally fast heart rate one month into her detention. Instead of releasing her, the Liuhe County Detention Center handed her over to the Liaoyuan City Detention Center. After one month at the latter detention center, Ms. Lyu was taken to the Heizuizi Labor Camp to serve a three-year term. It was unclear whether this was a new forced labor term or the one that she did not serve in 2000.
The labor camp guards tortured Ms. Lyu and other practitioners in an attempt to make them give up their belief. Ms. Lyu held firm to her faith and was once shocked with electric batons. Another time her hands were cuffed to a bed. She was also forced to do hard labor without pay for long hours each day. Once she refused to work, and guard Wang Limei dragged her to the cell. Ms. Lyu sat down to do meditation and Wang kicked her in the chest. She remained unmoved, and Wang uncrossed her legs, before cuffing her hands and feet to the bed. She was restrained like this for more than two hours and she almost urinated in her pants.
As a result of the relentless torture and mental pressure, Ms. Lyu was forced to write statements as instructed to give up Falun Gong. She came to her senses the very next day and declared to nullify the statements she wrote the day before.
Ms. Lyu was released on August 21, 2004.
Sentenced to 9 Years in 2008
Ms. Lyu was arrested on February 28, 2008, while distributing Falun Gong materials in nearby Ji’an City. While held at the Ji’an City Detention Center, she was stripped to her undergarments and made to stand barefoot in the snow for three hours. The guards also shocked her on the hips with two electric batons for more than one hour. She went on a hunger strike in protest and was force fed salty food.
The Ji’an City Court sentenced Ms. Lyu to nine years about six months later. Prior to her prison transfer, the detention center guards attempted to take her pictures. When she refused, the guards called in two inmates to knock her down and step on her head and abdomen. They then took her picture. The detention center director also slapped her in the face twice.
Tortured in Prison
Ms. Lyu was admitted to the education division of the Jilin Province Women’s Prison around August 2008. Guard Liu Minghua instructed inmates Liu Yaqian, Zhang Xuelian, and Zhou Baifeng to “help” her quit Falun Gong. They ordered her to study anti-Falun Gong materials and she firmly refused.
Liu Shuanghui was assigned to “help” Ms. Lyu about one month later. He ordered her to hold her arms in front of her head from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. when she still refused to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Lyu lowered her arms from fatigue at one point, and Liu had a convicted murderer beat her hands with a club. She had blisters as a result of the beating but remained firm in her faith.
Liu then subjected Ms. Lyu to the roping torture (see image below), with her four limbs tied up in a spread-eagle position and her body suspended in the air.
Torture illustration: roping torture
Ms. Lyu was in excruciating pain and sweat profusely. One inmate even lay on her and pressed down hard to make her suffer even more. Another inmate beat her on the arms with a rolled up book. Her face changed color and she gasped for air. Only then did the inmates untie her and let her down. As soon as she got a bit better, they tied her up again.
Liu had Ms. Lyu on the roping torture for two days. She refused to study anti-Falun Gong materials after she was let down, and Liu tied her up again without giving her a break. Whenever she needed to relieve herself, Liu had an inmate fetch a basin to catch her waste.
The roping torture lasted about one month. Ms. Lyu was then moved to a different cell and given another “helper” named Zhao Guifeng. She still held firm to her faith and the guards moved her again. Shao Ling, Li Dongmei, and Jiang Fengying were then assigned to “help” her study anti-Falun Gong materials.
Ms. Lyu refused to comply and the new group of “helpers” decided to put her through the roping torture again. As soon as they stretched her arms, she felt sharp pain in her chest. The inmates stopped the roping torture, but forced her to do a single-leg squat from 4:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. She fell and they kicked her and ordered her to re-squat.
Around September 2009, Ms. Lyu was moved again. “Helpers” Wang Xiufang and Ma Yan were assigned to work on her. The two grabbed her head and tried to dunk it in a water bucket. She struggled to get away. They then slammed her head against the wall before covering it with a blanket. After that, they forced her to kneel on a board. She still refused to study anti-Falun Gong materials, and they forced her to cross her legs on top of each other with her hands tied to a bed frame for several straight hours.
Ms. Lyu went on a hunger strike in protest. Wang stuffed food into her mouth and reported her to captain Zhang Shuling. Zhang agreed to put Ms. Lyu through the roping torture again.
Ms. Lyu soon felt sharp pain in her chest and gasped for air. The inmates gave her a bit of a break before resuming the roping torture. This time the roping torture lasted about three months, during which time the inmates kept threatening and verbally abusing her. She once recounted that she almost lost herself and just wanted to scream.
After this round of roping torture, Ms. Lyu often struggled to catch her breath. The guards kept her in solitary confinement for a few months before resuming the roping torture. She again gasped for air, and the inmates stopped the roping torture. They, however, still subjected her to other means of torture.
Ms. Lyu was later forced to do hard labor without pay. She was set to be released on February 27, 2017, only to be seized that day and taken to a detention facility. She escaped on March 6 that year, and her local police station kept pressuring her daughter to transfer away her household registration in their jurisdiction because they did not want to “deal with Falun Gong.”
Related Article in Chinese:
Related Reports:
Woman Finishing 9-Year Prison Term Seized by CCP Agents Upon Her Release
Changchun City, Jilin Province: Seven Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced to Prison
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