Elderly Shop Owner Tortured in Liaoning Women's Prison

Summary of Key Persecution Facts:

Name: Jia Guiqin
Gender: Female
Age: 63
Address: Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Meat shop owner
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 24th, 2010
Most recent place of detention: Liaoning Women's Prison
City: Shenyang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Detention, imprisonment, beatings, forced labour, locked up in a tiny cell, forced injections, denial of personal hygiene

Ms. Jia Guiqin, an over-60-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Liaoning Province, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for explaining the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution to people. She has been incarcerated in the Liaoning Women's Prison, where she has suffered severe torture, leaving her emaciated, weak, and often unable to focus her mind.

Return to Good Health Through Falun Gong

Prior to taking up the practice of Falun Gong, Ms. Jia had rheumatoid arthritis, eye disease, nasal inflammation and other illnesses. She once also had a heart attack. As she aged, her health continued to worsen; she could hardly take care of herself. When she was about to lose all hope, somebody introduced Falun Gong to her.

After practising for less than a month, all of her diseases were gone. She finally enjoyed good health. She even took off the glasses she had worn for dozens of years. She strictly followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, as taught in Falun Gong, and tried to always be kind to others.

Ms. Jia owned a meat shop called “Flourishing Grasslands.” Since she sold good-quality meat, her store was very popular in the community.

However, this kind, well-liked woman could not escape the evil grasp of the Chinese communist regime.

Persecuted for Her Faith

On April 24th, 2010, the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) of Chaoyang City and the local Domestic Security Division directed many officers from the Qianjin Police Station to break into the Ms. Jia's home. The police arrested her and her husband, Mr. Li Hua. The couple were taken to the Wujiawa Detention Centre.

The police, Procuratorate and court colluded to sentence Ms. Jia to 13 years in prison. Her husband was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 5 years of probation.

Ms. Jia appealed to the Middle Court of Chaoyang City. However, the court upheld the verdict and even called to threaten Ms. Jia's family. A court official told the family: “Even though you hired a lawyer, he will not be allowed to see Ms. Jia. We won't reopen the case and will maintain the original sentencing.”

Tortured in Prison

In Chinese prisons, it is common for the prison guards to assign criminal inmates to monitor and abuse Falun Gong practitioners. If a prisoner refuses, his term may be increased. Some guards pretend to be nice to Falun Gong practitioners, but direct inmates to beat them behind the scenes.

Prisoners Liu Hongxin, Xu Hua, Wei Shijun, Zhang Xiaoying and others in the Liaoning Women's Prison often participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They forced practitioners to stand still for long periods of time, deprived them of sleep, kicked them, dragged them by their hair, and removed their clothing in winter and poured cold water on them.

Ms. Jia was transferred to the Liaoning Women's Prison on September 13th, 2010. She was often abused by Xu Hua and other prisoners for saying, “Falun Gong is good.”

Once in the clothing workshop, prisoners Xu Hua, Zhang Xiaoying and Wei Shijun inserted dirty toilet paper into Ms. Jia's mouth and then used excess cloth from the workshop to seal Ms. Jia's mouth. They also tied her hands, so that she could not move on the bench. The prisoners then violently beat Ms. Jia. She was also beaten by the captain Guo Xu in his office.

On July 5th, 2013, department head Qu Xiaoqing and team leader Guo Xu put Ms. Jia in solitary confinement for shouting “Falun Gong is good” in the workshop.

Ms. Jia began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. After one week, she was sent to the hospital, where she was further abused for 32 days.

During her hospital stay, she was injected with unknown drugs. On one particular day, she was injected with seven bottles worth of drugs. The needle punctures were all over her body.

During this period, she was handcuffed to the bed and could not move. She was not allowed to brush her teeth, wash her face, or even get up to go to the bathroom.

Ms. Jia was sent back to the workshop on August 6th, 2013. On August 14th, she shouted “Falun Gong is good” and was placed in solitary confinement again. The cell was cold and wet, with no sunlight. There wasn't even any bedding. Ms. Jia had to sleep on the cold concrete floor.

A prisoner who saw Ms. Jia reported that her head was cut and bleeding. She was not released from the isolation cell until September 4. She is still imprisoned, and is now emaciated and very weak.

Partial list of individuals involved in the persecution:

Xu Zhonghua (徐忠华), chief of Division No. 5, Liaoning Women’s Prison: police number 2105207
Qu Xiaoqing (曲小青), department head of Division No. 5, Liaoning Women’s Prison: police number 2105373
Guo Xu (郭旭), head of Ward No. 5, Division No. 5, Liaoning Women’s Prison
Xu Hua (徐华), Zhang Xiaoyin (张小英), Wei Shijun (魏世军), and Liu Hongxin (刘洪新), prisoners involved in persecuting Ms. Jia Guiqin