Ninety-Year-Old Woman with Severe Hypertension Imprisoned in Shanghai for Practising Falun Gong

Nine female Falun Gong practitioners are currently imprisoned in Hongkou District, Shanghai, several of whom are senior citizens. Four have been informed that they will be prosecuted for resisting the persecution with hunger strikes, including two held at the Shanghai Prison Main Hospital.

An approximately 90-year-old female practitioner (name unknown) is imprisoned in Hongkou District Detention Centre. When she was taken to the detention centre, she shouted "Falun Gong is good!" Many detainees heard her.

Practitioner Ms. Wang Quandi was arrested by the 610 Office¹ of Baoshan District on November 1st, 2007, and was first imprisoned in the Detention Centre of Baoshan District before being transferred to the one in Hongkou District. Only after Ms. Wang had been imprisoned for one month was she informed of the so-called "arrest," and on March 11th, 2008, a so-called indictment came out. On March 16th, she went on a hunger strike to protest the Chinese Communist Party's persecution.

Practitioner Ms. Sun Qi, about 70 years old, lives near Hongkou Park. Her systolic blood pressure has reached 240 due to the torture she has suffered, but she has still not been released to return home. She developed severe hypertension due to being imprisoned twice before, the first time was for four days, the second time was for one month. This time she was taken to the detention centre in the middle of the night on February 4th, 2008. The local 610 Office disregarded her advanced age and hypertension, insisting that Hongkou District Detention Centre officials take her in. Because her blood pressure was so high that it threatened her life, the detention centre authorities did not want to be responsible for any consequences, so they took her to the Shanghai Prison main hospital. Even the hospital refused to take her in when those in charge saw her condition. She was taken back to the detention centre and is there now.

Practitioner Ms. Shen Meiping was arrested on the evening of November 8th, 2007, in a large-scale, city-wide, premeditated arrest effort in Shanghai. She is now in Hongkou District Detention Centre and has been informed of the charges against her.

There are two other practitioners in the detention centre, both 66 to 67 years old.

Hongkou District Detention Centre usually only needs four female prison cells open, but now it has opened all the female prison cells. The intention is to detain practitioners in multiple cells so that torture can be carried out on them one by one.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/3/29/175310.html