Exposing the Hebei Province Women's Prison in Luquan City

Several hundred female Falun Gong practitioners are locked up in the Women's Prison in Hebei Province located in Tongye Town, Luquan City. The practitioners were transferred there from around the country because they persist in their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance.

The prison authorities are currently constructing a new building. In November 2007, practitioners from all five brigades of the Forced Labour Camp in Shijiazhuang City have moved into a building next to the prison, because the citizens in Shijiazhuang detested the persecution and made it harder for the persecutors to continue their crimes in that city. The camp has not informed the families of those practitioners.

I. Brutal Tortures

The Hebei Province Women's Prison is a merger of women's wards of the Taixing Prison in Baoding, the Chengde Prison, and the Shijiazhuang Prison. It has a total of nine prison wards, each of which holds a dozen practitioners. There are over 100 practitioners from Hebei Province currently held in the prison. In March and April of 2005, guards in the Shijiazhuang Prison forced all inmates to undergo blood tests. Medical staff from outside of the prison took about 10 millilitres of everyone's blood and did about 6 or 7 tests. No one received any results from this test. It is suspected that this may be related to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) live organ removal practice.

1. Practitioner Yu Jingxia's Life is in Danger

Ms. Yu Jingxia, from Shijiazhuang City, is currently imprisoned in the third prison ward of the Hebei Province Women's Prison. Due to long-term physical and mental torture, Ms. Yu's entire body is swollen and she has difficulty breathing. She is very weak and close to death. The prison officials still have four prisoners take turns monitoring her around the clock, even when she sleeps.

Ms. Yu had severe heart disease when she was arrested and needed an operation. The guards gave her intravenous injections and did nothing to help her. Ms. Yu's family was worried and tried to get her released on medical probation. Officers Sun and Gu tried to stop the efforts of Ms. Yu's family by not allowing any visits until June 2006. Officer Sun also strongly objected when Ms. Yu's family proposed her release on medical probation.

2. Practitioner Ms. Bai Yuzhi Lost Her Eyesight Due to Torture

Ms. Bai Yuzhi, 45, is a former member of the Jingjing County Political Consultative Committee in Hebei Province. Ms. Bai was tried many times for persisting in Falun Gong practice. Since the persecution started in 1999, she has been continuously tortured in forced labour camps and prisons, and her health has deteriorated. Her relatives sought a medical probation but the prison officials denied it.

When Ms. Bai was imprisoned in the Hebei Women's Prison, she was being tortured and lost her eyesight. She also vomited blood, her kidneys almost failed, and her life was in danger several times. Eventually, she became paralysed and is now bedridden. Her relatives tried again for medical probation but the prison officials denied it. On December 25th, 2006, Ms. Bai's term was over and she was released.

3. Practitioner Ms. Li Xiaoying Tortured Until She Suffered a Mental Collapse

Ms. Li Xiaoying is in her fifties and was previously a teacher in Shijiazhuang. Ms. Li refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong. Therefore, guards in the Hebei Women's Prison tortured and berated her and put her in solitary confinement for over three months. Li Hongzhen instigated Wang Junlan and Feng Zhiyun to slap Ms. Li until her eyes were purple and swollen and she bled from her mouth and nose. They also denied her visitations and deprived her of all freedom. She was often scolded and sometimes forced to eat waste from toilets. After a while, Ms. Li suffered a mental collapse.

4. Practitioner Ms. Peng Yun Tortured in Solitary Confinement Six Times for Practising Falun Gong

Ms. Peng Yun is 42 years old and from Nangong, Xingtai, Hebei. She learned Falun Dafa between 2001 and 2002 while detained for committing a crime in the Xingtai Detention Centre. She turned into a good person who never violated the law. From 2003 to 2005, when she was locked up in the Hebei Women's Prison, guards Ma Mei, Li Hongzhen and Zhang Weixia put her in solitary confinement six times. It's a small room without a window. It's dark all the time with no air circulation, and is extremely hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Ms. Peng had to eat, drink, sleep, and relieve herself all in the same room.

In July and August 2003, guard Li Hongzhen ordered Yang Jianmei, Chen Xiyan, Fan Xiuqin, and Feng Caili to torture and brainwash Ms. Peng. Yang poured a cup of boiling water on her face and berated her. Chen pulled her hair and slapped her face. Feng beat and kicked Ms. Peng from the back, and Fan tried to talk Ms. Peng into giving up Falun Gong.

In October 2003 and January 2004, guards Ma Mei, Li Hongzhen, and prisoner Yao Yaixiang put Peng into solitary confinement for 100 days. The weather was freezing and there was no heat in that room. She developed many areas of frostbite and was very weak after a month of hunger strike. Ma and Li shocked her neck and face with electric batons, causing Ms. Peng to be unable to speak for several months.

From May 19th to August 25th, 2004, guards Zhang Weixia and Yang Zhenhua body-searched Ms. Peng and locked her in confinement for 100 days. Prisoners Guo Yuping and Feng Zhiyun dragged Ms. Peng along the ground until her shirt came off, and she was topless with her chest facing up. Her back bled quite a lot due to abrasions from being dragged and her blood stained the ground. The weather was hot and Ms. Peng went on a hunger strike for three weeks while in confinement. Regardless of Ms. Peng's weakened condition, the guards handcuffed her to an iron gate making it impossible for her to stand or sit. Ms. Peng passed out and lost control of her bowels.

From May 29th to June 20th, 2005, guards Li Hongzhen and Zhang Weixia locked up Ms. Peng in confinement for 22 days. Ms. Peng was released after 14 days of being on a hunger strike.

From October 3rd to 20th, 2005, prisoner Ma Hongyan reported Ms. Peng for reading Falun Gong books. Guards Zhang Weixia and Zheng Weihui put Ms. Peng in confinement at 2:00 a.m. on October 3rd, 2005. Ms. Peng was released after 17 days being on a hunger strike.

From March to April 2006, prisoner Ma Hongyan reported Ms. Peng again and thus she was locked up again. She was released after a 3-week hunger strike.

In the Hebei Women's Prison, practitioner Liu Jinying was force-fed with faeces and urine. Dr. Liu Xiaorong was shocked with electric batons. An Jinting and Chen Yanyu were force-fed many times until their mouths and noses bled.

II. Guards and Prisoners are Brutal and Cruel

The guards in the Hebei Women's Prison not only torture practitioners themselves, they also often instigate prisoners to torture them.

Guard Xu Lan, in her thirties, worked at the No. 4 prison ward and was in charge of torturing practitioners. When Xu was in the Shijiazhuang Prison, she often searched female practitioners and had them stripped naked. She later stopped because practitioners Yi Yuhui, Hu Rui, Yang Shuzhen, Bai Yuzhi, Zhao Zhen, and Chen Shufen protested. Xu now works in the Hubei Women's Prison, No. 4 prison ward. She is directly responsible for the maltreatment of practitioners Peng Yun, Zhang Zhe, and An Jinting. Zu also instigated prisoner Zuo Zhiyan to monitor practitioners and torture them.

Prisoners in that prison who helped torture practitioners have received karmic retribution. Prisoner Yao Aixiang, female, in her forties, served her sentence in the Shijiazhuang prison before 2004. Yao had previously been a reporter for the Hebei Daily. She was sentenced to 16 years due to fraud. In prison, she helped torture practitioners. On June 7th, 2003, Yao monitored and framed practitioner An Jinting and caused Ms. An to be tortured. In July 2003, Yao suffered from diabetes and had a malignant tumour the size of a baseball that secreted pus. On October 25th, 2004, Yao reported practitioner Peng Yun, thus Ms. Peng was locked up in confinement for three months. The same day that Yao had reported Ms. Peng, Yao fell and hit her head on a nail poking out of a piece of wood. She bled a lot and the nail and the piece of wood was stuck in her head until she was taken to the nurse's office. Her head was swollen. In January 2004, Yao persecuted practitioner Shen Shexiang. Yao's malignant tumour worsened and spread to her liver and kidneys, and fluid started to accumulate in her abdominal cavity. In March 2004, Yao had complications and was hospitalised. In April, Yao was released on medical probation and passed away in May.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/12/10/168093.html