A Father's Cry: Can Our Daughter Come Out of Prison Alive?

[Editor's note: simply for practising Falun Gong, Ms. He Lianchun (何莲春) was sentenced to 10 years in 2009 and is now serving time at Yunnan Province Second Women's Prison. Because she insisted on her constitutional right to believe in Falun Gong, she has been subjected to abuse since the day of her prison admission.

Her teeth are now very loose from abuse, and she cannot chew food. She has lost a lot of weight and is extremely weak. Her family, however, hasn't been allowed to see her since last June.

With five years remaining on her term, her 73-year-old father Mr. He Chengyun is quite worried, wondering if his daughter will come out of prison alive.]

Below is Mr. He's eye witness account of what happened to his daughter.

Repeated Arrests

Our kindhearted daughter, Ms. He Lianchun, of Mengzi County, Yunnan is 46 years old. She was first sentenced to five years in prison in October 2001. She was arrested again on January 23rd, 2009 and secretly sentenced to ten years in October 2009.

Brutal Forced Feeding

My wife and a few relatives visited our daughter at the request of the prison on August 24th, 2010 and were given the task to persuade her to give up her belief. Our daughter assured my wife that it was a constitutional right to uphold one's belief in Falun Gong, and she would never give up the practice.

We received a call from the prison on September 7th, 2010, asking us to visit our daughter since she was in critical condition because of multiple diseases. I could not leave home during this busy farming season. When my wife arrived at the prison one week later, she was taken by taxi to a hospital in an outlying area.

Our daughter went on a hunger strike to protest being imprisoned for her belief. She was brutally force fed with a tube through her nose. She was rushed to the hospital because the tube punctured her lung. My wife reported that our daughter looked completely different. The visit was closely monitored and videotaped.

To avoid any liability, the prison guards asked my wife to sign a medical parole agreement and promised to release our daughter soon. My wife signed the paperwork, but our daughter was not released as promised. She miraculously survived her lung failure and was taken back to the prison.

We visited our daughter on September 25th, 2012 after repeatedly pleading with the prison guards. This was the first time I saw her after she was incarcerated. She looked filthy and pale. Her dirty hair was matted and tangled. I learned that she has been under “strict control” since her admission to the prison.

Strict control meant that she was closely monitored by inmates around the clock. She was forced to sit without moving on a small stool for 16 hours every day. If she needed to get up to use the restroom, clean herself, do laundry or purchase personal items at the prison shop, she had to ask the guards for permission this way: “Officer, criminal He Lianchun needs to... Please grant me permission.” My daughter refused to do this.

My daughter said she did nothing wrong by simply practicing Falun Gong and refused to call herself a “criminal.” So she never made any requests to the guards and was thus made to sit on the small stool for extended periods of time.

Medical Parole Denied

We received a phone call from a prison guard on June 5th, 2014 and visited our daughter on June 10th. She lost a lot of weight and looked extremely weak.

Three guards stayed with us to video tape and monitor the entire time we visited. We were told that our daughter had high blood pressure, which, if left untreated, may cause other physical problems. She has stopped taking medicine for more than ten days. We were requested to sign a paper authorizing them to force my daughter to take medicine.

Our daughter told us not to sign the paper under any circumstance, as signing the paper would exempt the prison from liability. She said that her teeth became loose after repeated forced feeding of medicine. It hurt so much that she simply couldn't chew any food.

We also learned from our daughter that she was not allowed to buy milk or other drinks with the money we sent her. We wanted to ask more about her conditions, but the guards abruptly ended our conversation.

We refused to sign the prison-prepared paper, but insisted our daughter be released on medical parole. The prison denied our request, saying that our daughter did not meet parole requirements. We were then informed that the visit was over and no more future family visits would be allowed.

Family Visits Prohibited

We obtained an approval of family visit from the local police station as requested by the prison, and our entire family went to see our daughter on July 15th, 2014. The guards turned us away, citing that our daughter is under strict control and is not allowed visits.

We are worried that our daughter may not survive the remaining five years of her sentence. We urge you to pay close attention to her case and to stop the brutal persecution against her.