(Minghui.org) Ms. Yu Jianli, a Changchun City, Jilin Province resident in her 30s, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for upholding her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999. She was transferred to Jilin Province Women’s Prison on May 25, 2021 and has been denied family visits. Her family members are concerned about her situation.
Sentenced Together with Six Family Members
Ms. Yu and her husband Mr. Wang Dongji were arrested while visiting Mr. Wang’s parents on August 15, 2019. Mr. Wang’s parents, Ms. Yu’s mother, Ms. Yu’s brother-in-law, and his father were also arrested on the same day. All seven members of the extended family were sentenced to 7 to 7.5 years in prison.
The evidence used to sentence Ms. Yu included several items she published on Minghui.org, including a solemn statement declaring her intention to resume the practice of Falun Gong after having been forced to give it up under pressure, as well as a few articles exposing the persecution against her mother.
Abused in Prison
Ms. Yu is incarcerated on the first floor of Division 8 in Jilin Province Women’s Prison. She has to get up at 4 a.m. every morning and is forced to sit on a small stool for long hours. Inmates are instructed to monitor her every move and try to pressure her to give up Falun Gong. She isn’t allowed to buy daily necessities either.
Torture re-enactment: Sitting on a small stool
When a family member of hers requested to visit her, a guard, who refused to reveal his name, replied, “How dare you think of appealing the verdict? With such an attitude of hers (not renouncing Falun Gong), you still want to see her? No way!”
On July 27, 2021, Ms. Yu’s family member filed a complaint against this guard. Two hours later, the family member received a phone call from Ms. Yu. She cried on the phone, “Why don’t you ever come and see me? I am homesick now.” She said she had no money. The family member told her that they remitted money to her half a month ago, and they came to the prison many times, but were blocked every time.
Her family member asked her if she was forced to sit on a small stool. Ms. Yu dared not to reply, but kept crying. She said she had to get up at 4 a.m., but didn’t answer the question of when she went to sleep at night. She kept telling the guard next her, “I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything.”
The next day, the family member call the division 8 and asked why they forced Ms. Yu to get up at 4 a.m. The guard who answered the phone denied it and said, “I was standing next to Yu Jianli when you called. She didn’t say that.” When her family demanded to check the surveillance video in the prison, the guard refused and stated that family members were not allowed to check video recordings.
The family member didn’t give up but is continuing to seek justice for her with the prison’s appeals office and justice department. The family member has yet to receive any response from them.
Sentenced together with Ms. Yu, her mother Ms. Fu Guihua and mother-in-law Ms. Wang Fengzhi, as well as practitioners Ms. Liu Dongying and Ms. Cui Guixian are all detained at Division 8. Their situation is unknown at the time of writing.
Inmates Instigated to Persecute Practitioners
It was reported that the Division 8 of Jilin Province Women’s Prison are mainly used to imprison Falun Gong practitioners. There are various torture methods used to force practitioners to renounce their faith.
One of the torture is to force the practitioners to sit on a small stool that is 18 cm (7 inches) high, 20 cm (7.9 inches) long and 15 cm (5.9 inches) wide, which has caused the practitioners’ buttocks to fester. Once sitting on the stool, the practitioner is not allowed to move at all.
In addition to the physical abuse, the practitioners are not allowed to buy basic necessities such as toilet paper or sanitary napkins. The guards go so far as to use toilet paper as leverage in an attempt to force them to renounce Falun Gong.
The chief of the Division 8 is Qian Wei, female, about 52 years old. She personally instructed inmates to transform all practitioners with all means possible. Thus the murderers, drug dealers and fraudsters abused practitioners at will with outrageous torture methods.
For example, Ms. Dang Yanhua, a Jilin City, Jilin Province resident in her 70s, was tortured by inmates Gao Yunxia and Chai Baihui in July 2020. She was not allowed to eat, sleep or use the toilet. The inmates also forbade her from washing herself for 9 months. She was tortured by being forced to sit on a small tool with a piece of paper between her legs. When the paper fell out, the inmates punched and kicked her. When she shouted “Falun Dafa is good!” in protest, the inmates pressed her head into a toilet bowl and stuffed mopping rags into her mouth. She was also denied sleep for three days.
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Policy Above Law: Jilin Court Refuses to Provide Copies of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Verdicts
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