(Minghui.org) This article is a personal account of a Falun Gong practitioner in Hunan Province. She was sentenced to one and a half years in October 2022 and served time at the Hunan Province Women’s Prison. Below is what she experienced and heard at the prison during her detention there. It is unclear whether the maximum security division is still operating at the time of this report.
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There was a maximum security division at the prison designated to “transform” steadfast Falun Gong practitioners [meaning to make them give up their spiritual belief]. Any practitioner taken to the division must acknowledge she is a criminal or she will be savagely beaten by the guards and inmates.
Once a practitioner was forced to renounce her faith, the guards still had to see if the “transformation” was genuine. To that end, the practitioner must squat down before a surveillance camera at 8 a.m. every day to say, “Criminal so-and-so is here to report to guards. Please instruct me on what to do next.” An inmate on duty to monitor all practitioners would then respond on behalf of the guards, “OK, you can now stand up.” The practitioner must say “thank you” before standing up.
The practitioner must spend the rest of the day criticizing Falun Gong and reciting hate propaganda against the practice. If she stuttered during recitation, that was deemed a sign that her “transformation” was fake and would invite beatings and other punishments, including transcribing pre-written statements smearing Falun Gong.
Amei (alias), who was also jailed at the prison, told me what she went through. She refused to say she was a criminal when she was first brought to the maximum security division. A guard immediately hit her on the leg with an electric baton. The force was so strong that she lost balance and fainted. After she came to, the guard instructed five inmates to punch and kick her all over her body. She was knocked down. The inmates grabbed her hair to yank her up, and she lost a lot of hair on her crown. One of her left ribs was broken as a result of the kicking. There was a large area of bruise on her abdomen and severe swelling on her legs. She had injuries everywhere.
The inmates next dragged her to another room and forced her to stand motionless. Any slight movement would result in more beatings and no food or drinks. The standing torture lasted hours until past 11 that night. She was then ordered to sleep on a wood board on the floor. She couldn’t fall asleep at night due to the pain. The temperature was only 33oF but the inmates forced her to put her hands outside the comforter in the heatless room. She shivered all night. The inmates checked on her or talked to her frequently as they also feared she might die.
The guards woke her up a bit past 5 the next morning and ordered her to stand motionless again. At around 9 a.m., the guards instructed two inmates to take her to another cell. The head inmate there pulled her pants down to her calf and stared at her for about five minutes. She remained calm and the head inmate then allowed her to pull up her pants.
The head inmate then said that the guards were watching the surveillance videos of the cell and ordered her to squat and report her as a criminal. She squatted but refused to say she was a criminal. The head inmate ordered her to stand up, only to kick her on the abdomen so hard that she went airborne and hit the wall. As soon as she managed to get up, the head inmate kicked her again. As soon as she stood up, the head inmate kicked her a third time. Even before she got up, the head inmate kicked her a fourth time, this time on the chest. She hit the wall again before falling down. She gasped for air and covered her chest with her hand and moaned in pain.
Another inmate pulled her up, and the head inmate slapped her in the face four times. Her face immediately became deformed.
The torture stopped when Amei finally gave in and renounced Falun Gong against her will. She later also told me that she heard another practitioner, jailed in the cell next to hers, verbally abused and beaten all the time. The commotion stopped when that practitioner was also forced to give up Falun Gong.
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