(Minghui.org) Ms. Sun Yougui, 56, from Jiangxia District in Wuhan City, was arrested on March 13, 2014, and sentenced to four years in Wuhan Women's Prison for practicing Falun Gong. She was repeatedly tortured by police, who tried to force her to renounce her faith as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of the spiritual and meditation practice.
Arrest and Detention
When I was passing out Falun Gong informational materials to taxi drivers in front of the Jiangbei Munitions Factory on March 13, 2014, security personnel dragged me to a guard room. Two officers from the Zhifang Police Station arrived and searched my bag, throwing everything on the floor. The female officer wrote the name of Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, on the ground and ordered me to step on it. When I refused, she slapped my face. I was then taken to the police station.
The police ransacked my home that day. They confiscated Falun Gong materials and more than 19,000 yuan in cash that had the words “Falun Dafa is good” printed on them. They left without giving a list of confiscated items to my husband.
At the police station, the officers took blood samples and tried to take my fingerprints. I refused to cooperate by making a tight fist. Thus, they began pricking my hand with a needle. My hand was swollen for several days.
I was taken to the No.1 Detention Center of Wuhan City. In my nine months there, when I was interrogated, I demanded that the police return the money they had confiscated. The money was eventually returned to my husband.
I also insisted in doing the Falun Gong exercises in the detention center. I was once told not to do the exercises because of an inspection, so I sat on the bed and sent forth righteous thoughts instead. One of the criminal inmates dragged me onto the floor and beat me. I sat on the floor without moving, continuing to send righteous thoughts.
Show Trial
I was tried by the Jiangxia District Court in October 2014. When the judge asked if I had anything to say. I asked him to clarify, “What cult organization did I make use of, and which law did I undermine?” (Editor’s note: Because no law in China prohibits the practice of Falun Gong, practitioners in China are often indicted under Article 300 of the Criminal Law, “using a cult organization to undermine implementation of the law.”) The judge immediately adjourned the hearing. I was later sentenced to four years in prison. I appealed to the Wuhan Intermediate Court, which upheld the original sentence.
Tortured in Prison
I was transferred to Wuhan Women's Prison on December 2, 2014. I was made to stand for about 16 hours a day for two weeks because I refused to cooperate. I was not allowed to purchase daily necessities, and others were not allowed to share theirs with me. The inmate assigned to monitor me threatened to withhold toilet paper if I did not cooperate.
Two weeks after my arrival at the prison, I was transferred to a ward and put under strict control. I was assigned to director Zhou Cun, Zhang Jun, and Cai Ying, heads of the sub-wards. They assigned four inmates to monitor and “transform” me without any restrictions on the methods they could use.
They forced me to stand for a long time. I was not allowed to wash my face or rinse my mouth. If I closed my eyes, they would flick my eyelids, push me or pinch me hard.
They also insulted and beat me. They made me stand for eight days and nights. Seeing that I still refused to “transform,” they fed me unknown drugs. Family visits were restricted to two times a year.
I was transferred to the No.7 Ward, No. 2 sub-ward on December 16, 2015. The guards and heads of that ward tortured me.
Zhang Caihong and Hu Xiaoping, heads of the ward, called me to their office for a talk. I said that I would continue being a good person by following the Falun Gong principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They told me that I needed to “study” more and forced me to stand every night until midnight.
In June 2016, guard Zou Changqiong woke me up during a routine inspection after 10:00 p.m. because my legs were not in a straight position. She then dragged me out of the cell and forced me to stand until 2:00 a.m. When I tried to go back to sleep, Zou and the other guards pulled me into an office without a surveillance camera and beat me.
After beating me for the third time, Zou Changqiong said she would give me a chance if I promised to sleep with my legs straight. It was an unreasonable request and one that wasn't part of prison policy, so I refused to cooperate. Liu Xiaohong, head of the ward, came into the room and asked me the same thing. I told them that it was not possible to guarantee one’s leg position when one is asleep.
Zou said that since I did not take the opportunity she gave me, they would cuff my hands behind my back and hang me on a metal door. I passed out because of the excruciating pain. I was cuffed for one day and one night without being given any food. At around 5:00 p.m. the next day, I was put in solitary confinement and tortured.
I was handcuffed, allowed to sleep for only two hours a day, and given only steamed rice with spicy and salty radish to eat. I was closely monitored by inmates. I was not allowed to wash my face or feet or flush the toilet, which attracted many mosquitoes. My legs and feet were swollen and misshapen from standing for long periods of time every day.
I was also forced to listen to propaganda recordings that slandered Falun Gong and write a statement admitting my wrongdoings. One morning, they told me to drink some water, but I refused. They then tried to force me to drink the water but were unsuccessful.
I was in solitary confinement for 15 days. Since I did not write the “self-criticism” statement, a public meeting was held in the ward to criticize me. Three inmates were made to serve as “witnesses” and were told what to say.
Luo Qiongfang was one of the inmates assigned to monitor me for more than a year. She mistreated me and kicked my bench when I tried to sit down.
The abuses I endured in Wuhan Women’s Prison were only the tip of the iceberg. In the past 19 years, many Falun Gong practitioners have been physically and psychologically tortured there.
