(Minghui.org) Two months after being released from prison, Ms. Zhu Chunxiu still feels tremendous mental anguish every time she recalls the physical and psychological torture inflicted upon her by prison guards and inmates.
The 69-year-old Yueyang City resident was arrested on September 21, 2016 for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime. She was sentenced to 18 months and ordered to serve time at Hunan Province Women's Prison.
The prison guards resorted to various means to try to make Ms. Zhu give up her belief in Falun Gong. They once forcibly brushed her teeth with a small brush used to clean toilets. They also threatened to send her to a mental hospital and inject her with drugs that damage the central nervous system. Under pressure, she had to say and write words defaming Falun Gong on a regular basis.
Ms. Zhu credits Falun Gong for returning her to health, and in a free world she would never in a million years betray the practice that had transformed her life. She feels torn that she was forced to badmouth Falun Gong against her will while imprisoned.
Several agents from the local 610 Office, an extra-legal agency tasked with eradicating Falun Gong and given power to override the judicial system, went to the prison on her day of release, March 20, 2018. They ordered her to report to them the very next day.
Ms. Zhu and her daughter went and learned that her pension had been suspended by her employer, Junshan District Urban Planning Bureau, since the day of her latest arrest. The 610 Office said that the only way to restore her pension was for her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhu refused to write them, but her daughter succumbed to the pressure and copied the 610 Office's required statements as requested.
Details of Ms. Zhu's Latest Arrest and Subsequent Torture
The local procuratorate demanded 30,000 yuan in exchange for their promise to not indict Ms. Zhu. She refused and was sentenced to 18 months in prison on December 15, 2016. She was admitted to Hunan Province Women's Prison in April 2017.
Ms. Zhu refused to renounce Falun Gong and was forced to sit on a small bench for extended periods of time. Her buttocks festered as a result.
One day a few inmates were directed by a guard to put the Falun Gong founder's photos under her buttocks and feet, and even into her mouth. She struggled to get the photos away, but was placed in solitary confinement.
While jailed alone, she was forced to watch videos defaming Falun Gong. She refused to write statements to denounce Falun Gong, and some guards even used a small toilet brush to brush her teeth.
They didn't allow her to use the restroom. She soiled her pants, and they poured cold water all over her body. She was also forced to stand from dawn to midnight. Such torture lasted for 12 days until she finally gave in. Her hair turned white and she couldn't stand any more.
Ms. Zhu was moved back to her regular cell on October 15, 2017. The guards felt that she didn't really give up Falun Gong and forced her to sit and sleep on the Falun Gong founder's photos. They threatened to send her to a mental hospital. She had no choice but transcribe statements defaming Falun Gong.
Her emotional suffering never went away after she was released on March 20, 2018.
Prior to her latest imprisonment, Ms. Zhu had been repeatedly arrested and her pension was once suspended for a whole year. The local authorities threatened to suspend her husband's salary as well. He felt like he had no choice but to divorce her. He passed away in 2015.
