(Minghui.org) When Ms. Han Zhongcui's (韩仲翠) older sister visited her in Gansu Women's Prison on December 19, 2014, she noticed that her sister looked very different from one month prior.

Ms. Han's face and eyes were swollen, she looked tense and anxious, and asked her family not to visit again. Her older sister tried to console her by telling her that Zhou Yongkang was no longer in power, and that the persecution of Falun Gong would no longer be sustained.

But as soon as the name Zhou Yongkang was mentioned, the phones they were using to talk through were cut off.

Ex-security czar Zhou Yongkang was formerly the most powerful member of the Politburo Standing Committee. He was one of the chief culprits who launched and actively executed the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners like Ms. Han.

It is widely believed that Zhou's downfall was due to his involvement in the persecution.

A tall female guard rushed toward Ms. Han after the phone was cut off. Ms. Han seemed terrified, and she quickly stood up and stepped backward. The guard scolded Ms. Han and removed her from the visiting room.

Her older sister was left behind, stunned by what had just happened. When she asked about her sister at the front desk, she was told that the captain wouldn't allow the visit, and that was all.

Not satisfied, the older sister went to Gansu Bureau of Prisons to report what happened during her visit, and told a worker there that she suspected the guards had intensified their torture of Ms. Han since her visit. After the young man checked out Ms. Han's information on a computer, he left.

When he returned, he asked the older sister if they had talked about something they shouldn't have during the visit.

She replied, “I only told her that Zhou Yongkang had been arrested, and now everyone was equal in front of the law.”

“You shouldn't have said things that are not allowed during the visit,” answered the young man.

Ms. Han, 54, was a public servant in Lanzhou before she was unlawfully imprisoned. She had told her sister during an earlier visit of how she was often physically punished in prison because she refused to renounce Falun Gong.

Sleep deprivation was one torture often used on Ms. Han. She was once kept awake for almost three weeks. Another time she was forced to stand still overnight every day for three months. Her legs swelled to the point where they were as wide as her feet were long.

The guards in the prison also threatened other prisoners with extra labor if they could not make Ms. Han give up her belief. To avoid punishment, other inmates went all out to abuse Ms. Han, both physically and verbally. They also forced her to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong.

Upholding her beliefs, Ms. Han refused to sign the so-called repentance letter and guarantee letter.

While she is suffering at prison, Ms. Han's mentally-challenged son is left to fend for himself. He can not care for himself nor communicate with others in the absence of Ms. Han, whose husband divorced her after she was imprisoned.

Ms. Han's 96-year-old mother is in poor health and waits for Ms. Han to come home every day. Agents from the local 610 Office constantly harass Ms. Han's two older sisters.