(Minghui.org) A once-healthy woman developed illness symptoms six months after being arrested for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, and her requests for medical parole were repeatedly denied. Another six months passed before police took her for a checkup. The doctors recommended immediate hospitalization, and the local court changed her three-year prison sentence to probation and released her.
As she was not handed a copy of her diagnosis, she was unaware of the severity of her condition. She consulted her own doctor, who diagnosed her with late-stage lung cancer.
Ms. Sun Yanhuan, a teacher, was arrested on December 24, 2015 and released on bail on January 29, 2016. She was detained again on November 8, 2016.
She experienced chest pain and a low fever in May 2017, and was required to appear in court on September 27 and October 16. Although she requested medical parole, the judge did not grant it. She was sentenced to three years in prison on October 18.
Her condition worsened, so the detention center guards eventually took her to a public hospital for an examination in mid November. Without advising her of the diagnosis, they contacted the local appeals court right afterward, and the higher court changed her prison sentence to probation. She was released on November 27.
Judge Zhou Chen, from the local court called her late husband's brother, demanding that Ms. Sun be further monitored. Her brother-in-law refused.
The following is Ms. Sun's personal account of her ordeal.
I started practicing Falun Gong in July 1999, the month when Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime, launched the persecution of the cultivation practice.
As did many practitioners, I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in December 2000, was arrested and detained for 15 days. I was released after the Jiamusi City 610 Office extorted 6,000 yuan from my family. My workplace stopped paying my salary for six months and withheld my 2,000 yuan bonus.
After the “Heilongjiang Human Rights Case” occurred in March 2014, I was arrested for trying to rescue detained practitioners.
Two of my friends and I were arrested on the morning of December 24, 2015 by a dozen police officers when we were about to take off for another day of rescuing detained practitioners. We were taken to the Jianguolu Police Station. My friends were released that night.
Qu Zebin, the deputy director of the police station, removed my house keys from my bag, and with a team of police officers ransacked my house. A police officer informed me that my personal belongings were hauled away in two police vans.
Qu later gave me a list of the items confiscated for me to sign. I signed it without verifying what had and had not been taken.
I was taken to an interrogation room at the police station where officers took turns monitoring me. I clarified the truth about Falun Gong to them and advised them not to follow Jiang in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Some agreed.
The police had found a large number of materials related to the case when ransacking my home. They regarded me as the key person in this case.
A man in plainclothes who introduced himself as someone from the vice squad came to interrogate me at about 2:00 p.m. I believed that he was actually from the city's Public Security Bureau. Another officer informed me later that this man was Li Zhongyi from the Jiamusi Public Security Bureau Cult division.
This man told me that my neighbors had spoken well of me and thus he felt respect for me. This appeared to be a tactic to gain my trust. He then told me that they had arrested me because of the “Heilongjiang Human Rights Case,” as I was involved in the rescue of the practitioners.
“I didn't commit any crime,” I said. “Why did you arrest me? I was helping Ms. Wang Yanxin who was one of the detainees in the Heilongjiang Human Rights Case. I have the right to cooperate with the lawyer, as I was following existing legal procedures. Moreover, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued a notice in 2017 allowing citizens to file complaints against former state leaders using aliases. I thus have nothing to say to you.”
He left about two hours later. The police wanted to take my photograph and fingerprints that afternoon, but I refused to cooperate.
Qu and another officer then took me to the Jiamusi Central Hospital for a medical check up before transferring me to the detention center. They demanded my brother-in-law sign the detention document, but he refused.
When police took me for interrogation, I noticed many practitioners standing outside of the center to support me. This encouraged me.
Li returned with Yan, the chief from the legal division, to interrogate me. Yan gave me the feeling of being smooth and hypocritical. He told me that he had researched Falun Gong and could recite a few poems from Master Li Hongzhi's book, Hong Yin. Given his smooth behavior, I let down my guard.
Before leaving, Yan said, “I'll go to Jiansanjiang tomorrow to understand the situation and see if there is anything that will be beneficial to your case.”
He returned three days later to read to me the confessions by some practitioners. He said, “Other practitioners have already put blame on you. They knew how to make DVDs and one of them knew how to repair computers. Why did they not do it themselves? It's obvious that they didn't want to be responsible.” I knew that Yan was trying to sow discord between practitioners, and wanted to convince me to cooperate.
Yan claimed, “They also mentioned that you often went to certain practitioners' homes. They also claimed that in the afternoon of the 27th, they gave you the DVDs for delivery to the provincial capital.” I doubted Yan's words and wondered what to do.
Yan said that many practitioners had been arrested, and as some had cooperated with police, they might be released. He then suggested, “You will be fine if you tell me what happened after going to the city. If you tell us, we won't arrest more practitioners.”
I thought that if I told them what happened, they wouldn't arrest anyone else, and it would minimize the damage. So I told them about making DVDs, including the materials, who made them, how I brought them to the provincial city, and the process of hiring lawyers. I was afraid that I might have left out something, so I even found someone to supply more information.
They interrogated me again and again and I repeated the information without any changes. I didn't realize that I had fallen into their trap, and even thought I was remarkable.
Qu once again interrogated me on January 7, 2016, before taking me to the Jiamusi Central Hospital for a medical check.
I could feel that they had no intention of releasing me. I was placed under criminal detention, which was to be served in a detention center.
Although my blood pressure was high, Qu insisted on taking me to the detention center. At the center, the doctor found that my blood pressure was too high, so they refused to accept me.
Qu took me to his office, forced me to take anti-hypertensive drugs twice, and watched until my blood pressure had lowered, after which he took me to the detention center. At the detention center, my blood pressure was high again, and the doctor refused to accept me.
Qu admitted that my blood pressure was lower after he forced me to take anti-hypertensive drugs twice. The doctor reprimanded Qu, saying that this could put a person’s life is in danger.
The detention center accepted me after Qu gave 500 yuan to the police officer in charge of admission.
The frequent interrogations continued. They wanted me to confess, but I told them that everyone was willingly involved. I had to reluctantly admit however, that I was the one in charge when they showed me what other practitioners had said. They had spilled the beans to the police officer from Jiamusi City Dongfeng Police Department Sub-branch and another one from the Jiamusi City Public Security Bureau.
Guo from the Jiamusi City Public Security Bureau asked if I realized what crime I had committed. He said that I was wrong in filing a criminal complaint against Jiang because Jiang was a former state leader.
I defended my actions, saying, “Didn't the law allow citizens to file complaints against former state leaders? We are doing things as allowed under existing law. Moreover, everyone is equal before the law and there is no exception for the leader. I didn't do anything wrong.”
He then insisted that the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate had issued a statutory interpretation that labeled Falun Gong as a “cult.” So, I asked him, “When Jiang Zemin is put on trial, will you still insist on what you said today?” He did not like this question, became upset, and reprimanded me.
Li then gave approval for my release on bail. My daughter signed the form on January 26 and I was released three days later on January 29.
When I was out on bail, I learned from Guo that he had a stroke and one of his relatives passed away, so I called and sent letters to persuade him to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.
Qu told me to come to the police station on November 8, 2016. I thought this to be a good time to clarify the truth to him and went there with my brother-in-law.
He wanted me to go through the formalities and hoped that I would cooperate with him. In turn he said he would give me probation instead of detaining me. I clarified the truth to him for more than an hour instead of providing information.
He listened quietly before calling his supervisor for instructions, as he couldn't argue with me. I heard his supervisor mentioning twice, “Send her in!”
I realized that they wanted to take me back to the detention center. When my brother-in-law and I wanted to leave, the police were ready to prevent me from leaving. I was kept in the interrogation room until Qu took me for a medical examination before taking me to the detention center. This time my high blood pressure did not stop them from detaining me.
I started to have a burning pain in my chest in May 2017, after being detained for six months. However, the doctors could not determine what was ailing me, so I refused to take any medicine. I asked to have a medical checkup at the city's hospital. Since I refused to take the medicine, the prison guard did not submit a report.
The pain continued and affected my movements, and I asked for painkillers. This went on until June 28 when my lawyer heard that the trial had been scheduled and came to see me. I asked him to contact the police department, Procuratorate, and detention center and demand that I be given a medical examination. Nothing came of it. I requested that the director on duty take me for an examination, but to no avail.
I endured the pain for another three months and verbally requested during the court hearing that the presiding judge grant medical parole. He refused. Two days after the hearing, on October 16, I was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and I decided to appeal.
Then, a lump appeared on my back, and the prison doctors could not diagnose it. After using a pain relief cream the lump grew. Then, in mid November, I was taken to the Jiamusi Central Hospital twice, and after the CT scan, the doctor requested that the detention center admit me into the hospital for treatment.
The deputy director told me that treatments were too costly and they asked the intermediate court to change my prison sentence to probation. I was released home on November 27, 2017.
As I had not been told the diagnosis, I went for a medical check at the most prominent hospital in the city. I was told that I had late-stage lung cancer, that it had spread to the bones, and that no surgery could help me. The doctor suggested chemotherapy.
They could not step back and stop persecuting me. Despite the diagnoses, judge Zhou Chen from the Jiamusi Intermediate Court contacted my brother-in-law on March 7, 2018, and demanded additional monitoring. However, my brother-in-law refused to comply.
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