Blinded and Incapacitated in Prison, Hebei Woman Dies Months after Being Released

Once a healthy woman, Ms. Chen Lingmei was totally blind and incapacitated when she was released from prison on August 22, 2017. She died on December 7.

The Zhuozhou City resident had been severely abused while serving three years at Shijiazhuang City Women’s Prison for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime. The guards beat her on a regular basis. Even after she lost the ability to stand on her own, they still had inmates prop her up and stand for long periods of time.

Ms. Chen’s husband, Mr. Cao Zhaohui, also practices Falun Gong. The couple was arrested at the same time in August 2014 and both sentenced to three years in prison. They were released on the same day this past August.

This is not the first time that the couple has been targeted for upholding their faith in Falun Gong. Both Ms. Chen and Mr. Cao had been arrested multiple times and given forced labour in the past. They were subjected to various forms of torture during their detentions.

Ms. Chen was forced to run laps after her first arrest in July 1999. She soon became exhausted and could no longer move. Police whipped her with willow tree branches and struck her on the hips with a wide wooden plank. They also slapped her hard in the face.

A police officer stuck an electric baton under Ms. Chen’s armpits and shocked her for long periods of time after she was arrested again four months later. Another officer also hit her in the face with a wooden board.

Ms. Chen was arrested for a third time on October 1, 2000. The local political and legal affairs committee secretary, Ren Binghui, used a torture instrument with spikes on it to beat her in the back. He then sprinkled salt on her open wounds before resuming the beating. She passed out from the pain and was revived with cold water. Ren forced her to sit in a pool of dirty water with only undergarments on for a whole night.

Ms. Chen was given one year of forced labour after her arrest in 2002. Barely three months after she was released from Baoding Labour Camp, she was arrested again and sent to a local brainwashing centre, where she was held for more than one month.

Ms. Chen and her husband were arrested together in 2006. She was later released, but her husband was sent to Baoding Labour Camp to serve his third forced-labour term.