Beijing Lawyer Ms. Song Mingying Forced to Sit on a Tiny Stool Until Her Legs Became Swollen

Ms. Song Mingying, a lawyer with the Zhongying Law firm in Beijing, was sentenced to forced labour following police arrest. She is serving her term at the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp and was tortured by being forced to sit on a tiny stool for a very long time, making her legs swell up.

The stool has a rough seat about 10 in by 10 in and is about 1.5 ft high, without a back. The victim has to sit straight and keep her legs together. Because the stool lacks arms and a backrest, to sit in that position for a long time is torture. Guards and drug offenders looking for a sentence reduction monitored Ms. Song and made her view brainwashing information. She had to sit like this for 16 hours at a time, resulting in her swollen legs and also made her lose focus.

Chaoyang District police agents captured Ms. Song on May 7th, 2010, and held her at the district detention centre for a month before she was transported to the labour camp. She was first in the No. 4 Team, the place where practitioners were persecuted the most. This team was previously known as the Forced Labour Dispatch Division. The practitioners were eventually transferred into the other teams.

In July, Ms. Song was transferred into the No. 1 Team. Team leader Zhao Jinfeng used brutal tactics to persecute the practitioners. When Ms. Song refused to "reform," [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] she was locked in a single small cell and separated from other practitioners. From 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. she had to sit on the tiny plastic stool.

Her husband visited her on August 10th and was heartbroken when he saw her swollen legs and how difficult it was for her to walk. Their seven-year-old son was sent to his grandparent's home far away because there was no one to take care of him.

This common method of torture, called a "high stool", is used on practitioners at forced labour camps. This, plus having to listen to Falun Gong being slandered, is a physical agony and a mental torment.

Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/7/8/118420.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/8/20/228556.html