Yunan Province Second Prison Denies Family Visits for Ms. Shi Yun

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Shi Yun was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. She was detained in Yunan Province Second Prison in May 2008, and has been detained there for nine months. The prison has denied her of family visits. Her family members came to Yunan Province Second Prison again on February 13th, 2009, and requested to visit her. The prison guard called the section where she is being held. Her family was told they needed to bring certification to verify their relationship. When they later came to the prison with the certificate, the guard called the section again and was told that Ms. Shi Yun is under "strict control" and the family needed a letter from the local 610 Office¹. To this day, her family has not been allowed to see her.

Ms. Shi Yun was born on May 9th, 1976, and taught at the Kunming City Second Professional College. She was arrested by police from Xiaonanmen Police Station in Wuhua Public Security Sub-bureau of Kunming City on September 30th, 2007. She was detained in Wuhua Detention Centre.

In Wuhua Detention Centre she refused to recite the prison rules. Policewoman Zhang Lirong and guard Yang Liping discontinued all of her everyday supplies, including toilet paper. The guard later slandered her for taking toilet paper. She started a hunger strike to protest. Police from Wuhua Detention Centre handcuffed and shackled her and took her to the Second Hospital of Kunming Medical College to be force-fed. Policemen instigated inmates to spit into the food used for the forced-feeding. They used the bowl used by patients with hepatitis for Ms. Shi. The food that was force-fed was cold and mixed with dirty water. Ms. Shi had been on hunger strike for nineteen days. Police tied her hands behind her back and kept her legs tied around the clock. They left the force-feeding tube in her stomach, and repeatedly pulled out and stuck the tube back into her stomach to torture her. This resulted in severe ulceration of her nose and stomach. She was on the verge of death nineteen days later. They then stopped the torture.

The Kunming City Procuratorate gave an order to arrest Ms. Shi in November 2007. On January 9th, 2008, Kunming City Provincial Intermediate Court put her on trial and claimed that she had sent out 1,800 letters to explain the facts of Falun Gong from 2005 to September 2007. However, no evidence of the 1,800 letters was provided to the court. Only photos of several letters were provided by police. It was said that the handwriting on the letters was Ms. Shi's. The court only allowed her husband to witness the proceedings but did not allow him to defend her. There were over twenty 610 Office personnel in the courtroom. They threatened Ms. Shi's lawyer and prevented him from defending her.

Ms. Shi's husband, Jiang Yuliu, was told that she was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment on May 11th, 2008. She was taken to Yunan Province Second Prison on May 22nd.

Mr. Jiang Yuliu is also a Falun Gong practitioner and also taught at the Kunming City Second Professional College. He was sent to a forced labour camp for two years, and released in December 2006. The college, however, did not allow him to return to work. The three people in Ms. Shi's family all rely on her salary to survive. When Ms. Shi was arrested on September 30th, 2007, her son was only two years old.

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.ca/mh/articles/2009/2/28/196246.html