Ms. Wang Xiuxia Died as a Result of Torture at Liaoning Provincial Women's Prison

After nearly four years of brutal torture at the Liaoning Provincial Women's Prison, Ms. Wang Xiuxia, a Falun Gong practitioner from Shenyang, Liaoning Province, passed away on January 24th, 2006 at age 41. While detained, she was beaten, forced to sleep on cement floors, soaked with a dozen buckets of cold water, and forced to work overtime performing slave labour. In December 2005, when she was emaciated, swollen in many places, and near death, the prison released her to her family. She died soon afterwards.

Ms. Wang Xiuxia was born on April 12th, 1965. She worked for the administrative division of the Shenyang Railroad Bureau. After the persecution started in July 1999, she was dismissed from work because she refused to give up practising Falun Gong.

On February 6th, 2002, Ms. Wang was arrested by police from Shenyang Municipal Police Department, Huping Branch, of Hebei Substation while distributing Falun Gong materials leaflets exposing the persecution. Policeman Cai, about 40 years old, with two women managers of the Heping District Yuping Second Community, and a few others raided her home. The police used a cleaver to shred her wardrobe, walked all over her bed with their shoes on, and left her home in a mess.

Later, Ms. Wang was sentenced to four years in prison. Initially she was detained at the Shenyang Ankang Hospital (a.k.a. Shenyang Municipal Drug Rehabilitation Centre), and was subsequently sent to the Liaoning Provincial Women's Prison (formerly located at Shenyang Dabei Prison, moved to Shenyang Prison District in October 2003).

Because Ms. Wang refused to give up her faith, she was brutally tortured at the prison both mentally and physically. Only a few details are known because the prison has not let information out to the public. Because Wang refused to write a repentance statement¹, she was brutally beaten. Several prison guards held her hand to force her to write the statement, and her hand was injured. The guards did not allow her to talk to anyone else. Every day she was forced to perform slave labour for more than ten hours. She was forced to sleep on ice-cold cement floors, with only a thin blanket. As a result, her kidneys and other organs developed problems, and her legs and feet became swollen. The prison guards also poured more than a dozen basins of cold water on her.

In July 2005, when her family members visited her in the prison, they found her to be extremely thin and frail. Two female prison guards were present to watch Ms. Wang. Ms. Wang only said she could not eat anything. The family members saw that her feet were swollen. Ms. Wang's health deteriorated after that. Her family requested that the prison release her so that she could receive medical treatment. In order to evade responsibility, the prison sent her home in December 2005. At that time, Ms. Wang was extremely emaciated and close to death. Her stomach was very swollen, all her front teeth were gone, her feet and legs were swollen, she was nearly unconscious, and many punctures from needles were found on her chest.

Her family took her to the Shenyang Municipal Chest Hospital (a.k.a. Shenyang Tenth People's Hospital). She was diagnosed with tuberculosis in both lungs, pleurisy in her left lung, heart failure, and low blood iron, at a level that was life threatening. Ms. Wang passed away on January 24th, 2006.

Liaoning Provincial Women's Prison:
Main switchboard: 86-24-89296600; Warden's office: 86-24-89296666; Political commissar's office: 86-24-89296677
Second Team director: 86-24-89296870
Hospital director: 86-24-89296861
Prison general office: 86-24-89296733
Warden: Li Sen

Note

1. Repentance Statement: In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/2/13/120688.html