Liaoning Women’s Prison Refuses to Release Critically-Ill Ms. Zhang Jie and Denies Family Visits

Ms. Zhang Jie's relatives received a phone call from Liaoning Women’s Prison on February 8th, 2014, informing them that she was in critical condition following a hunger strike. When they went to the prison, they saw that three inmates had to help her to walk. She looked pale and extremely weak.

Her family immediately asked that she be released on medical parole, but the authorities refused, saying, “She does not meet the conditions.” The prison is even refusing to allow her family to visit her.

Sentenced to Three Years, Contracts Tuberculosis in Detention Centre

Ms. Zhang was sentenced to a three-year prison sentence in October 2012, for telling people the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. She spent one year in Nangou Detention Centre, where she was brutally tortured. As a result of mistreatment, she contracted tuberculosis and developed heart disease.

She was secretly sent to Liaoning Women’s Prison in October 2013. Due to her poor health, she remained in the prison hospital. When her family visited her, they saw that she was wearing a face mask. Ms. Zhang and her family were separated by a glass. The prison authorities claimed that she was contagious.

Mother and Daughter Both Imprisoned

Ms. Zhang Jie and her daughter, Ms. Cui Xuejun, are both steadfast Falun Gong practitioners who believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. For more than a decade, they have been repeatedly arrested, detained, tortured, fined, sent to labour camps, forced into hiding, and sentenced to jail terms.

Ms. Zhang and her daughter were arrested on the evening of February 6, 2002 at their rented apartment. Dongzhou Court tried them secretly in mid-August 2002, without informing the family. Ms. Zhang was given a four-year sentence, and her daughter, Ms. Cui, three years.

Guards in Liaoning Women’s Prison have tried to break Ms. Zhang’s will by employing torture, beatings, slave labour, sleep deprivation, and dousing with cold water during the winter. To protest the persecution, Ms. Zhang began a hunger strike. Guards have force-fed her and mixed unknown substances into the food. The long term torture has impaired Ms. Zhang's health.

Ms. Cui was imprisoned in another unit in the same prison. Mother and daughter could not see each other even though they were in the same facility.

Parties Responsible for Persecuting Ms. Zhang:
Wangjia Police Station, Wanghua District, Fushun City, Liaoning Province:

Ren Yaofeng (任耀峰), police chief

Officer Li Zhongqiang (李忠强): +86-15640550575

Officer Liu Shibing (刘士兵): +86-24-24712066