Imprisoned Woman Forced to Take 1,200 Pills to Treat Condition She Didn't Have, Dies 14 Months After Being Released

A 70-year-old woman was reduced to skin and bones after two years of imprisonment for not renouncing her faith in Falun Gong. She died 14 months after being released.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body cultivation practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Luo Chunrong, a resident of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, was arrested on March 31, 2016 while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to two years by the Xinjian District Court in early April 2017 and was imprisoned in Jiangxi Women's Prison.

In order to force Ms. Luo to give up her faith, the prison guards placed a big speaker in her room and played audios at very high volume for 12 to 24 hours each day. She fainted as a result of the abuse.

When Ms. Luo protested the torture, the guards forced her to stand more than 12 hours without a break. Her legs became severely swollen. At night, they locked her in a small room with slogans attacking Falun Gong and its founder plastered on the walls.

After both physical and mental abuse failed to force Ms. Luo to give up Falun Gong, the guards sent her to the prison hospital and forced her to take drugs for hypertension, even though she didn't have high blood pressure. She said she was forced to take 1,200 pills during her imprisonment.

Three months after she was finally released in March 2018, Ms. Luo began to experience intense back pain. Eventually, the bones throughout her body ached. The condition progressed until she was unable to move and was screaming because of the pain. Ms. Luo died on May 24, 2019.

Ms. Luo Chunrong was a retired employee of the Nanchang City Water Company. She used to suffer from poor heath and was frequently hospitalized. After she began practising Falun Gong in 1995, her ailments soon disappeared and she was full of energy.

After the communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Luo was repeatedly targeted for not renouncing her faith. She was arrested and her home was ransacked seven times. The police monitored her landline and cellphone. Ms. Luo's daughter was also implicated and was forced to quit her job because of the communist regime's “guilt by association” policy.

In addition to the two-year prison term, Ms. Luo served another two years and seven months at a labor camp, where she was forced to do slave labour, subjected to intensive brainwashing and denied the use of restroom. Because of the physical abuse, her hair turned grey and her teeth fell out.

During previous arrests Ms. Luo was savagely beaten, kicked in her abdomen and lower body, and her toes were stomped on.