(Minghui.org) A physician in Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province, was brutally tortured while serving a 10-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Wang Yuzhuo, 61, formerly an attending physician in the Cardiology Department of Shuangyashan People’s Hospital, was arrested in 2002, simply because she practiced Falun Gong. During her 10 years in prison, not only was she herself tortured, but her family was also shattered. Her husband, who worked in the political office of the Shuangyashan City Procuratorate, was forced to divorce her; their son had to go live with a relative; and her father passed away due to pressure and anxiety.
Life Renewed Through Falun Gong Practice
Although a physician herself, Ms. Wang suffered from rheumatism, neurasthenia, and tuberculosis peritonitis before she practiced Falun Gong. She had two major abdominal surgeries, which left her with many side effects, and she often had to take leaves from work.
However, her life began anew after she took up Falun Gong in 1996. She got rid of all her ailments through the practice and no longer needed to use her medical insurance. She saved huge sums in medical expenses for her employer by staying healthy for over 20 years.
Ms. Wang did her best to be a good person by following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. She was a good wife and mother and a dedicated employee. Her neighbors praised her, saying she was virtuous and kind.
Arrest and Sentence
Officers Ling Dawei and Gao Yuan of the Jianshan Police Department arrested Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Zhang Li and Ms. Lou Weiming on April 15, 2002. The police forged false testimonies for the two practitioners and used them to persecute Ms. Wang.
Ling tried to blackmail Ms. Wang, but she did not comply. Then Ling went to her hospital to harass her. When the hospital sent Ms. Wang to be one of the emergency care doctors at the Shuangyashan People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Ling and Gao followed her. The hospital had no choice but to replace Ms. Wang.
Four police officers broke into Ms. Wang’s home at 5 a.m. on May 2, 2002. They found a copy of Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Gong) and arrested her. She was held in a detention center. Her arrest was approved on July 11, 2002.
The police claimed that the provincial government had instructed the local procuratorate to never dismiss a Falun Gong practitioner’s case or allow their lawyers to enter not guilty pleas on their behalf. They added that, if the practitioners had objections to any mishandling of the cases, the government would always side with the judicial officials.
Ms. Wang was tried in the Jianshan District Court on January 23, 2003, along with four other practitioners, although their cases were not related. It was reported that the judge did that to meet a “persecution quota.”
Ms. Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison, Mr. Ji Songhai to 12 years, Song Weiying to 11 years, Ms. Lou Weiming to 10 years, and Ms. Zhang Li to 9 years.
Ms. Wang was taken to Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison on April 3, 2003.
Brutal Torture in Prison
When Ms. Wang was taken to the prison on April 3, 2003, she was given a medical exam that revealed that she had uterine fibroids and severe heart disease. She was admitted anyway.
Ms. Wang was forced to do intensive labor for more than 14 hours every day, supervised by four inmates. Like many practitioners, she was often forced to squat during roll call, made to stand for long periods of time under the hot sun, forced to sit for long hours without moving, beaten, verbally abused, deprived of toilet use, and given only moldy rice or bad potatoes to eat.
Ms. Zhang and the other practitioners in the prison began a hunger strike in 2003 to protest being supervised by inmates and the violent abuse. The guards retaliated with torture, putting them in solitary confinement, force-feeding them with saltwater or pepper water, beating them, tying them up, hanging them with all four limbs stretched out, restraining them in death beds, making them wear shackles, and handcuffing them behind their backs.
Six practitioners in the 9th Ward, including Ms. Wang, were ordered to have blood tests on March 21, 2005, a year before the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners was exposed. When all of them resisted, the guards dragged them to the workshop. Ms. Wang was held down on the floor and had her blood drawn. Four practitioners were treated so roughly they couldn’t walk afterwards.
Prison officials set up a special team to intensify their efforts to brainwash the practitioners. Four inmates took shifts to monitor and brainwash one practitioner around the clock. Practitioners were not allowed to sleep or talk and had to be watched even in the restroom. Ms. Wang was one of over 30 practitioners who was subjected to that abuse, but she refused to renounce Falun Gong.
On April 8, 2005, prison officials ordered the practitioners in the special team to move into the brainwashing base that was set up in the workshop in 2003, claiming they were being moved to another cell. The practitioners refused to move. About 15 guards moved them by force and also ordered the inmates to beat them. One inmate dragged Ms. Wang downstairs to the brainwashing base while beating and cursing her.
To protest, Ms. Wang went on a hunger strike for five days. Two inmates beat her and dragged her to the clinic for an injection of an unknown drug. She was beaten in the clinic as well.
Inmates beat Ms. Wang again in April 2004 for not renouncing Falun Gong. She was forced to sleep on the cold concrete floor for ten days. She was not allowed to sleep in a bed at night and had to relieve herself in her pants. She suffered a heart attack as a result. Even when she was being treated in the hospital, the guards handcuffed her to the bed and force-fed her.
In July 2005 the prison trained over 70 people to escalate their efforts to make all practitioners give up their faith. The inmates were told to torture practitioners on body parts covered by their clothes. Inmate Wan Zhongli tortured Ms. Wang for more than a month. During that time, the inmate forced Ms. Wang to sleep on the concrete floor; she was on the verge of collapse.
Ms. Wang was transferred to the 11th Ward at the end of 2007 and injected with an unknown drug by inmate Shang Xiaomei. Her whole body became warm and cold intermittently afterward and her blood pressure rose. She could barely move and just lay on the floor during the day. Later, she and three other practitioners were taken to the hospital.
Even after three and a half months of this torture, Ms. Wang remained firm in her faith. She and three practitioners were taken back to the 3rd Ward.
More than 20 practitioners in the 3rd Ward continued to tell the guards and inmates the facts about Falun Gong and awakened their consciences. The torture gradually ceased. Ms. Wang remained in the 3rd Ward until her release in 2012.
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