Two Practitioners Die in Suzhou Women's Prison, Anhui Province

Two female Falun Gong practitioners have died in the Suzhou Women's Prison in Anhui Province (also known as the No. 3 Prison of Anhui Province). Ms. Fan Wenfang was arrested in 2003. She was carried to court on a stretcher and was sentenced to a seven-year term in prison, where she eventually died. The exact date of her death is unclear. Ms. Liu Zhilan was arrested and taken to prison on January 11th, 2009, and died one month later. The details surrounding her death await further investigation.

Account of torture suffered by Ms. Fan Wenfang

Ms. Fan was arrested seven times and taken to the detention centre, and sent three times to a forced labour camp by the Fuyang City 610 Office¹ and the local State Security Bureau. Between March 2000 and March 2001, the Fuyang City 610 Office arrested and sent Ms. Fan to the Hefei Women's Forced Labor Camp. While in detention, Ms. Fan suffered from forced feeding many times. Each time, the forced-feeding was directed by the guard and carried out by six to seven inmates. They used three large steel ladles and a prying device to forcibly open her mouth. Clumps of Ms. Fan's hair were pulled out in the process. Her ears and nose were severely injured, and she her lips, mouth, tongue and throat bled. Ms. Fan was sent home in March 2001 after she was tortured to near death. Before she fully recovered, Ms. Fan was arrested and taken to the same forced labor camp. Once again, she was not released until she was again on the verge of death.

In December 2001, under orders from the Fuyang 610 Office, Mei Gang of the Yingzhou District led several people to Ms. Fan's home and took her to a brainwashing centre. Ms. Fan refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong and went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The 610 Office released her several days later.

At the beginning of 2002, Ms. Fan was once again sent to the Hefei Women's Forced Labour Camp. She was later released when she was on the verge of death.

On May 25th, 2003, under orders from the Fuyang City 610 Office, the State Security Bureau in Fuyang City arrested Ms. Fan and took her to the Linquan Detention Centre, where she was secretly detained for more than six months. The police force-fed her with water mixed with hot peppers and unknown drugs. One time they stripped off her clothes while doing the forced-feeding.

After Ms. Fan was sentenced, she was taken to the Suzhou Women's Prison in Anhui Province, where she suffered persecution for more than one year. Every day they would gag her mouth with a cloth, pull her hair, and grab her legs and push her back and forth on the ground as if pulling a wheelbarrow. She lost all her teeth due to the brutal forced-feedings. In 2005, the prison officials declared that Ms. Fan Wenfang had died.

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.org/mh/articles/2009/8/7/205860.html