Practitioner's Mother Not Allowed to Visit Her Daughter in Heizuizi Women's Prison in Changchun City

Song Yanqun, an English teacher at Harbin Dade Japanese School, was arrested by Guo Wei, the head of the Shulan Police Department, along with other police on November 27th, 2003 because of her belief in Falun Dafa. Song Yanqun's younger sister, Song Bin, was arrested at the same time. The director of Shulan Police Department, Xin He, and policemen Li Zhuo, Li Yaochen, Li Jiazhe and Wang Tingbai, interrogated Song Yanqun and her sister. They tortured them both by tying them on a tiger bench¹, pricking their ears and eyes with a thin nail, and feeding them mustard oil. Song Yanqun was sentenced to prison for twelve years. She was transferred to the Heizuizi Women's Prison, where she was tortured on the "dead person's bed²" and held in solitary confinement. As a result, Song Yanqun contracted severe tuberculosis and lost weight, dropping to approximately sixty pounds.

On May 23rd, 2006, Song Yanqun's parents went to visit her in Heizuizi Women's Prison, but the guards would not allow Song Yanqun's mother to meet with her. Song's mother called and asked the leader of the Education Team, Cao Hong, why she was not allowed to meet with her daughter. Cao said, "Because you practise Falun Gong." Song's mother said, "But I am her mother. Is there any law saying I cannot meet with my daughter?" Cao did not answer her question and would not allow Song's mother to see her.
Since December 2005, whenever Song's mother went to the prison, she attempted to talk with Cao Hong. She also called Cao Hong twice. However, Cao Hong refused to meet or speak with Song Yanqun's mother.
Song Yanqun's father has been allowed to meet with her. However, the prison guards have limited his visits to between seven to ten minutes (the official visiting period at the prison is thirty minutes). Even though Song Yanqun's father is not allowed the full thirty minutes, the monitor (inmate assigned to monitor Song Yanqun) who joins the persecution of Song Yanqun, always utilizes some of the meeting time. The monitor has tried to deceive Song Yanqun's father with statements such as, "There is humane management in the prison," "The guards follow the law," and "The guards treat prisoners better than family."

During one meeting, the monitor asked Song Yanqun to stand at attention when meeting with her father, and lied in front of Song's father. A guard named Yang told the monitor, "Listen to what Song and her father say." After the guard came back, the monitor told her that Song's father told Song to not be "educated." Song's father immediately asked the monitor, "Are you just trying to get yourself released earlier by saying this? I will sue you if you do this again!" That monitor answered at once, "I will not do it again." The guard stopped the meeting. Thereafter, the monitor rebuked Song Yanqun.

Note

1."Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

2. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/5/31/129299.html