Ms. Feng Rongxia Seriously Ill After Being Persecuted in Shanghai Women's Prison

Since being sent to Shanghai Women's Prison on September 17th, 2007, 43 year old Feng Rongxia has been to the prison hospital over ten times, almost once a month. Although seriously ill, guards in the prison designated criminals to beat her in the cold weather, in order to force her to give up Falun Gong. She was beaten until she lost consciousness, but they poured cold water on her face, and she was kicked and beaten again.

Feng Rongxia lives in Zhabei District, Shanghai City. She suffered from aplastic anaemia since she was seventeen years old. In order to receive blood transfusions, she needed to stay in hospital for about half of each year. However, her illness never became better. Her long-term sickness brought poverty to her family, and it was also a mental anguish. In August 1998, Feng Rongxia began practising Falun Gong, and within just one month, all her body indexes became normal. She lived happily for the first time in her life.

In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to suppress Falun Gong. On December 1st, 2006, six or seven people from a 610 Office¹ in Zhabei District broke into Feng Rongxia's home forcibly. In order to deal with one unarmed woman, the 610 Office sent six police cars and one armed police car, 75 uniformed police in all, not including those in plain clothes. They even used batons to arrest Feng Rongxia. Her family members resisted the break in, and people from the 610 Office also took her family members away together. There were over 200 on-lookers. The whole problem started at 5 p.m., and lasted until about 10 p.m.

While detained in the Zhabei District Detention Centre, her immune system deteriorated. Some symptoms like fever she had suffered previously, returned. In that abominable environment, she was detained with criminals who had sexual diseases, and their clothes were hung together. As a result, she caught a venereal disease. She was sent to the hospital in prison twice. The doctor said her diseases could not be cured. Her blood indexes were not good either. The doctor told people in the 610 Office, "She has had aplastic anaemia before, and cannot take the medicine for the venereal disease."

During this time, Feng Rongxia's family member asked for her release from the 610 Office. Xue Qing and other people in the 610 Office promised them many times, that for sick women like Feng Rongxia, they would take care of her. They would just "re-educate" her and then release her; they would not make things difficult for her. Before the trial, Feng Rongxia's family members asked for her release from the Zhabei District National Security Team, but they were deceived into believing that they would not actually sentence to her to prison. Before the trial, judge Liu Min said on the phone, "Feng Rongxia will not be sent to prison considering her health condition. The sentence will be executed out of prison, or she will be bailed out for medical treatment." Xue Qing from the national security team promised her family members, "We will return her as she was arrested. We will return a healthy Feng Rongxia to you."

But on July 16th, 2007, Feng Rongxia was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. Outside of the court, Feng Rongxia's family members spoke with Tang from the national security team. Claiming that Feng Rongxia showed a bad attitude in court, they talked her family members into leaving, and then went through the motions of helping with bail.

On September 13th, 2007, Wang from the Zhabei District Detention Centre said that Feng Rongxia had been returned by the prison. Her family members asked the detention centre to release her. He said he could not decide and asked them to go back to await notification. And then nothing else happened.

On September 17th, 2007, Feng Rongxia was sent to the First Section in the Fifth Ward in Shanghai Women's Prison. Police forced her to write a statement giving up the practice of Falun Gong, and she refused. Then she was punished and forced to stand from 7 a.m. To 9 p.m, with only 15 minutes for lunch. Using her venereal disease as an excuse, police did not allow her to take a shower, or to use the public toilet; she was only allowed to use a spittoon and they required other criminals to empty it for her. By stirring up hatred towards her, they could further instigate the criminals to force her to give up Falun Gong.

People in the prison always claimed that Feng Rongxia was seriously ill, but the guards never stopped persecuting her because of her health condition. In July 2008, Feng Rongxia was brought to the women's prison again. Her weight had decreased by about 3.5 kg within a month. When visiting her, her family members saw that her arm was full of bruises, and her face was white and swollen. When Feng Rongxia told her family that she had been beaten when she refused to write the statement to give up Falun Gong, Yao Di, a team leader who was monitoring her said fiercely, "Why do you talk about this?" Feng Rongxia said when she reported that she was beaten to the team leader, no response was received, but they beat her even more fiercely and did not allow her to sleep. Yao Di said angrily, "They did beat you, but they were already punished for that."

For a year, nearly every day, Feng Rongxia's family members were shuttled between the police station, Zhabei District 610 Office, detention centre, prison, district court, municipal procurator, municipal appeals office, municipal women's organization, municipal congress, municipal Political Consultative Committee, municipal Justice Bureau, municipal discipline inspection commission, municipal prison administrative bureau, and the municipal Red Cross. As for the sentence, her family hired a lawyer to sue. But without a second trial, the court maintained their original sentence; and the reason was still that her "attitude was not good". All her family members were worried about her life. They wrote letters again and again to those departments, demanding that they release Feng Rongxia as soon as possible! However, it was either buck passing or deception, but there was no direct response.

Her family members communicated with the prison many times, asking for her release based on her health condition. The doctor who was responsible for her told her that she had lived in the hospital for such a long time, and now no medicine would work for her. Based on the Prison Law, patients like Feng Rongxia were qualified to be bailed out for medical treatment, but now the people in CCP still held her, neglecting her life.

People in the 610 Office threatened Feng Rongxia, "Your sickness is not fatal, and it is impossible to be bailed out for medical treatment. You'd better not think about it again!" In the beginning, when her family members proposed to bail her out, they were told her health condition qualified her to be bailed out by people in national security team, district street committee, or 610 Office . But now they were saying something different.

We call for the attention of people in the international community to help stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

People responsible:
Xue Qing from the 610 Office
Zhabei District Court: 86-21-36046660, General Session, Liu Min
Zhabei District procurator: 86-21-33034520, Public Prosecution Section: Liu Yan
Shanghai City Prison Bureau: 86-21-35104888
The Fifth Ward in Shanghai Women's Prison: 86-21-57616356 ext. 4505, team leader: Yao Di(female)

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/10/9/187358.html