A 68-Year-Old Woman Is Detained, Tortured, and Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

Ms. Tang Liwen, a 68-year old practitioner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, was arrested by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) personnel. She has been in jail for nine months. Her health and mental state have been devastated. A few days ago, she was sentenced to seven years in prison and taken to the Hohhot City Women's Prison in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on September 26th, 2008.

Ms. Tang was brutally tortured during the nine months she was in jail. The guards used various torture methods to try to obtain the password to her computer. They made her carry a large board on her back and handcuffed her to a steel pipe so that she couldn't stand or sit. She had to keep her back bent for many days. She was denied food. The guards force-fed her with a concentrated salt water solution and unknown substances. In mid-September 2008, she couldn't handle it any more. She was taken to the Tongliao City Hospital for infectious diseases and injected with unknown drugs. She became incontinent and mentally unstable. She would scream, yell, cry, and laugh for no reason.

Her nightmare started on the night of January 4th, 2008, when she was arrested by the police on the square in front of the Pacific Gate on People's Park Road in Horqin District, Tongliao City. That night, Wang Bo, the head of the Domestic Security Division, Horqin District Police Department; Guan Zhen'gang; a male surnamed Ma; and personnel from the Shijie Police Station went to Ms. Tang's home with a key they had confiscated from her. They ransacked her home and took her cash, computer, printer, and personal belongings, totalling tens of thousands of yuan¹. Ms. Tang's husband, who was over 80 years old, was the only one home. The police guarded him and prevented him from moving.

Toward the end of February 2008, CCP personnel from the Horqin District Procuratorate arrested Ms. Tang. The second half of August 2008, Horqin District Court sentenced her to seven years. The trial was in the Hexi Detention Centre in Tongliao City. Due to the nine months of torture, Ms. Tang was devastated and couldn't be moved. That was the reason given for holding the trial and announcing the verdict in the detention centre.

Ms. Tang's husband tried to appeal to the city-level and district-level police stations, the Procuratorate, and the court many times. He wrote many letters and included many materials but no one responded. Right before September 26th, 2008, when Ms. Tang was taken to the Hohhot City Women's Prison, he asked to see her. His request was denied. He asked to bail her out due to her medical condition. This request was also denied. On September 28th, 2008, Ms. Tang's daughter-in-law gave two packages of materials to the head of the detention centre. She was then told that Ms. Tang had already been taken to the Hohhot City Women's Prison two days earlier.

Around 20 to 30 practitioners from Tongliao District were arrested before the Olympics. All of their homes were ransacked and their belongings confiscated by the police. Only one practitioner was released. Currently, these detained practitioners have been dispersed to various county-level detention centres.

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Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/10/6/187180.html