Yao Yuming - 姚玉明
(Minghui.org) A Huma County resident lost her battle with post-stroke complications and died on July 20, 2016.
Ms. Yao Yuming, 64, was brutally tortured and injected with unknown drugs on multiple occasions while serving 7 years for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
She suffered a brain hemorrhage on August 2, 2005, and was released on medical parole a few weeks later. Half of her body was paralyzed and she was unable to talk at the time of her release.
Her family was heartbroken to lose her after 11 long years of struggle. Still, they encountered more heartache while trying to get her body cremated.
Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison confiscated Ms. Yao’s household registration card at her prison admission, but they refused to return it when she was released. Now that her family needed it for cremation, the prison realized they had misplaced it. They, however, declined to take any remedial measures.
Ms. Yao’s family had to buy a fake registration card to have her body cremated. They felt bitter irony as they were not only unable to seek justice for their loved one, but had to resort to petty means to send her off.
Efforts to Seek Justice Unanswered
Before Ms. Yao’s prison release, she and other imprisoned practitioners filed a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin on September 2, 2004, accusing the former Chinese dictator of initiating the persecution of Falun Gong that resulted in their imprisonment and torture.
It is unclear if their criminal complaint ever got mailed out, as the prison was still relentless in torturing them.
About four months later, Ms. Yao filed an appeal letter to Heilongjiang Province Superior Court demanding the agency seek justice for her and other detained practitioners regarding their mistreatment at the prison.
However, the appeal went nowhere as the torture of Ms. Yao and other practitioners continued.
Unconscious for Three Days
Ms. Yao was arrested in September 2002 and sentenced to 7 years on March 17, 2003.
She was transferred to Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on September 12, 2003. A medical examination revealed that she had abnormal blood pressure, but officer Wu Jie bribed the prison into admitting her.
Ms. Yao was given an injection as soon as she was taken in. She fell unconscious and didn’t wake up until three days later. She was never able to find out what kind of drug was given to her.
Big Hang-up
Ms. Yao was subjected to various forms of torture and abuse because she refused to renounce Falun Gong or wear prison uniforms.
The guards repeatedly applied a torture dubbed the “big hang-up” on Ms. Yao and other practitioners between March and May of 2004.
With this torture, one of the victim’s hands was pulled to her back over her shoulder to meet with the other hand twisted up from behind. The two hands were then cuffed together to a beam such that both feet were off the ground and the whole body weight was on the arms.
Ms. Yao and her fellow practitioners were often hung up like that for extended periods of time, often ranging from 20 to 28 hours. The guards also beat them during the process.
When some practitioners, including Ms. Yao, passed out from the pain, they were let down and fed unknown drugs before being put up there again.
Ms. Yao suffered a brain hemorrhage on August 5, 2005, but she wasn’t sent to Harbin Medical School No. 2 Affiliated Hospital until two days later. The doctors there performed open skull surgery and had her transferred to the prison affiliated hospital on August 22 while she was still recovering.
