(Minghui.org)
When Ms. Guo Suying (郭素英) was released from prison on April 24, 2011, she had all kinds of health problems after being brutally abused by guards and inmates for five years.
Ms. Guo was arrested at home on April 24, 2006, and sentenced to five years after spending seven months in Shisanli Detention Center in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. Her only “crime” was that she practiced Falun Gong, a self-cultivation system being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.
The guards tortured her on a regular basis after her transfer to Shijiazhuang Women’s Prison on November 20, 2006. She broke her patella one year into her sentence, and a steel plate was put in her leg. The prison authorities, however, refused to follow the doctor's advice and have the plate removed in a year. By the time she was released, the plate had been in her leg three years longer than intended.
Years of torture left her with lingering health issues, including hepatitis B, chronic inflammation of the stomach lining, and gastroptosis (abnormal downward displacement of the stomach). She also frequently coughed up blood. When she asked for early release on medical grounds, she was turned down, because she refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong.
Below is a brief account of her ordeal, based on her own recollections.
Ms. Guo was first kept in the Prison Admission Section. Because she refused to wear the prison uniform, the guards instigated inmates to keep the windows open to make her cold. They also wrote insulting words on her underwear, pants, and shirt to humiliate her.
She was next moved to a different team, where the guards directed former Falun Gong practitioners who had given up the practice to deceive her. She wrote a “repentance statement” to renounce Falun Gong under pressure.
After Ms. Guo was transferred to the 10th prison ward, she realized that what she wrote was wrong. In March 2008, she declared to the prison authorities that the repentance statement was null and void.
She was beaten severely. Guard Han Xiuxing kicked Ms. Guo and had inmates stuff dirty socks in Ms. Guo’s mouth.
Ms. Gao was also forced to stand for long periods of time, as inmates punched her and shocked her with electric batons. She was also denied lunch and locked up in a warehouse for a day.
Ms. Guo was sent to the prison hospital after she fell and broke her patella. Guard Zhang Lihua sent two inmates to harass and intimidate her. They did not even allow her to use a bedpan to relieve herself. Zhang also ordered Ms. Guo’s food and other daily necessities taken away and given to other inmates.
The day after Ms. Guo was discharged from the hospital, team lead Cao Yaqin punched her in the back and forced her to stand up, ignoring her leg injury. Cao also forced Ms. Guo to do hard labor.
Li Chunhua (李春花)Cao Yaqin (曹亚琴)Zhang Lihua (张丽华)Ma Aijun (马爱军)Gao Wenli (高文丽)Han Xiuxing (韩秀欣)