Name: Guo Chuanshu (郭传书)
Gender: Female
Age: 62
Address: Huangnizui Street, Baisha Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing
Occupation: Retired employee from the Baisha Tug & Barge Company
Date of Death: August 9, 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 24, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Chongqing Women's Prison City
Province: Sichuan
Persecution-Induced Sufferings: Detention, Imprisonment, Beatings, Physical Constraint, Sleep Deprivation.
(Clearwisdom.net) Chongqing Women's Prison officials phoned Falun Gong practitioner Guo Chuanshu's home on August 9, 2009, informing the family that Guo Chuanshu had died in prison.
Ms. Guo Chuanshu, 62 years old, retired from the Baisha Tug & Barge Company, the Jiangjin District, Chongqing, was sent to Chongqing Women's Prison at the end of November 2008 and died in prison on August 9, 2009. Ms. Guo had been detained and grossly abused six times. She was twice subjected to forced labor and sentenced twice to prison. Ms. Guo became paralyzed as a result of torture while incarcerated at the Chongqing Women's Prison.
The persecution that Guo Chuanshu experienced
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime's persecution of Falun Gong began, Ms. Guo went to Beijing to appeal. She was arrested and as a result, she was sent to the Simian Mountains Forestry Cultivation Station's brainwashing center in the Jiangjin District. Her husband divorced her because he could no longer bear the pressure from the CCP.
While she was telling people the facts about the persecution in Baisha Town, police unlawfully arrested her in the summer of 2000 and later subjected her to three years of forced labor. She was bailed out for medical reasons and released in September 2001.
In March 2002, Jiangjin District Police Department officials claimed that their supervisors would come to examine their work, so they took Ms. Guo away from her home and put her under administrative custody for fifteen days.
On the morning of May 2, 2002, when Ms. Guo was distributing materials about the persecution of Falun Gong in the city, policemen from the Lishi Police Station, over ten of them, arrested her. When Liu Jun, Hu Liang, and others from Jiangjin District Police Department took her to Jiangjin, Liu Jun kicked and punched her, causing her to become dizzy and nauseous; during the severe beating her head was injured as well. Later she was unlawfully sentenced to prison for three years. She was detained at the Langshan Detention Center in Jiangjin District, where the guards forced her to stay in the squatting position, and they also handcuffed her hands behind her back. Guard Feng Haoliang also put a shackle on her that weighed dozens of pounds. This kind of shackle is specially made to be used on death row inmates. In the hot summer, the guards did not allow her to take showers. They did not allow her to sleep and slapped her. Later, she was sent to Chongqing Women's Prison, where she was paralyzed due to the severity of the torture. In 2004, she was released on bail for medical treatment.
In 2006, Ms. Guo was sent to forced labor again. On the last day of 2007, based on the Chinese Lunar Calendar, she was released on bail for medical treatment. In the second half of 2007, the police arrested her again and gave her a sentence of three years of forced labor. Later she was released on bail for medical treatment.
On May 24, 2008, she was arrested by the police from the Domestic Security Division in Jiangjin District and then detained at the Langshan Detention Center. She was given a heavy sentence of four years in prison. On November 14, 2008, she was transferred to Chongqing Women's Prison, where she was tortured to death.
Ms. Guo's family members have the following questions regarding her death.
After the prison personnel informed Ms. Guo's family of her death, her family arrived at the location where she was tortured to death, and questioned them about the causes of her death. The prison personnel claimed that Ms. Guo died of vomiting and the emergency treatment was ineffective. They said that at 13:35 she started to vomit and at 14:55 she died. How could one die of vomiting for just over one hour?! When Ms. Guo's family member questioned the prison about the abnormal, greenish colored marks on her neck and back, the prison explained that it was postmortem lividity. When asked about the cause of Ms. Guo's death, the prison said that it was a sudden death. The prison also argued that Ms. Guo suffered a stroke in 2006 and that she suffered from cerebral palsy and high blood pressure when she was sent to the prison in November 2008.
First, if Ms. Guo was found to have cerebral palsy and high blood pressure during the medical examination when she was admitted to the women's prison in November 2008, according to the law, the prison should not have admitted her. Prison personnel claimed that they had to admit her if their supervisors wanted them to.
Second, when Ms. Guo showed severe symptoms of illnesses (but this was the claim of the prison; were the symptoms really due to illnesses or a result of torture?), why didn't the prison personnel inform her family members of her condition?
Later, the prison hastily tried to conclude the family's questioning by agreeing to give them compensation of 120,000 yuan, from which one can see the fear of the perpetrators.
Since Ms. Guo's death, her family members have been harassed by the officials from the local neighborhood committee, the village Party branch, and the Comprehensive Management Office. These officials have repeatedly come to Ms. Guo's home to investigate who is in her home and who has been coming to her home, under the pretext of checking people's residence certificates.
Here we appeal to the people of good conscience to act together to stop this brutal persecution against innocent Falun Gong practitioners!
Related articles:
Ms. Guo Chuanshu Died at the Chongqing Women's Prison, http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2009/8/31/110455.html
Ms. Guo Chuanshu Dies in Custody at Chongqing Women's Prison, http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2009/8/15/110039.html