Ms. Guo Chuanshu, 62, Died at the Chongqing Women's Prison

Name: Guo Chuanshu
Gender: Female
Age: 62
Address: Chongqing, Jiangjin District, Baisha Township
Occupation: Retired worker of Baisha Tug & Barge Company
Date of Death: August 9th, 2009

Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 24th, 2008
Most recent place of detention: Chongqing Women's Prison
City: Chongqing
Abuse suffered: imprisonment, forced labour, sleep deprivation, beatings, slapping in the face, handcuffing and shackling, denial of personal hygiene and sanitary living conditions

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Guo Chuanshu from Jiangjin District, Chongqing City, was sent to the Chongqing Women's Prison at the end of November 2008. She died in prison on August 9th, 2009. The sixty-two-year-old Ms. Guo had been detained and persecuted six times; she was twice sentenced to forced labour camps, and twice was sentenced to prison. While she was detained at the Chongqing Women's Prison for the first time, Ms. Guo became paralysed as a result of torture.

The prison claimed that Guo Chuanshu's physical condition was normal when she got up on August 9th. At 12:15 p.m., she took some medicine. At 13:35 she started to vomit. At 13:42 she was sent to the prison hospital. At 14:30 doctors from the Ninth Hospital came to the prison hospital to perform emergency treatment. At 14:55 Ms. Guo died. Only 80 minutes elapsed from the time she first vomited until she died.

At 15:36 the prison notified Ms. Guo's family of her death. Her family members rushed to the prison but couldn't arrive until past 6:00 p.m.. They had a brief chance to see Ms. Guo's body before she was transferred to the Baishiyi Funeral Home in Chongqing. Three officials from the prison, Police Official Luo, Section Chief Zhang and Director Wong, met with the family members.

The prison contacted Ms. Guo's daughter who worked in Tibet and learned that her daughter was not able to come until August 13th. The prison then notified Ms .Guo's family that her body had to be cremated on August 13th.

On August 13th, over ten family members went to the cremation ceremony. But the prison only allowed five of them to enter. The family refused their demand, and the prison had to extend the cremation date. On August 16th, Guo Chuanshu's family members went to negotiate with the prison again. Ms. Guo's body was cremated on that day. The prison claimed that Guo Chuanshu suffered from cerebral infarction in 2006 and that she suffered from cerebral palsy and high blood pressure when she was sent to the Women's prison in November 2008.

Ms. Guo's family members have the following questions:

1. On August 9th when Ms. Guo's family members saw her body, they noticed that the skin on the right of her neck was an abnormal, greenish colour. The colour of the skin on her back was greenish as well. Why was it like that? The prison explained that it was postmortem lividity.

2. Why did the prison not notify them when Ms Guo was vomiting from 13:35 to 14:55? The prison admitted that was a mistake.

3. The prison claimed that Ms. Guo suffered from serious illnesses. Why didn't the prison refuse to take her if her health wasn't up to par? The prison said that they had to take her due to orders from above.

4. The family asked the prison from which illnesses Ms. Guo died. The prison said that it was a sudden death. When Ms Guo's family members asked the prison if they forced her to do heavy labor or tortured her physically and mentally with extreme means, the prison denied it stoutly. Ms. Guo's daughter had gone to the prison to see her mother on April 29th, 2009. She saw that her mother was relatively well at the time. How come she died so suddenly?

Guo Chuanshu lived in Baisha Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing City. She was a retired worker from Baisha Tug & Barge company. She practiced Falun Gong. In 1999 she went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. She was detained and was sentenced to a forced labour camp in the summer of 2000. Ms. Guo was released on bail for medical treatment in September 2001. She was arrested again in March 2002 and was detained for fifteen days. In May 2002 the Jiangjin Court sentenced Guo Chuanshu to three years in prison. During her detention at the Jiangjin District Detention Centre, the guards tortured this older woman by forcing her to stay in a half-squatting position for long periods of time, and handcuffing her arms behind her back. Director of the prison Feng Haoliang made her wear heavy shackles. In the hot summer, sometimes more than ten days would pass before she was allowed to shower. She was deprived of sleep. The guards often struck her in the face.

Ms. Guo was detained at the Chongqing Women's Prison and became paralysed as a result of torture. In the summer of 2004 she was released on bail for medical treatment.

Guo Chuanshu was sent to the forced labour camp again in 2006. On New Year's Eve of 2007 she was able to go home on bail. On May 10th, 2007, when Ms. Guo was telling people the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution at the police station in Baisha Town, the police arrested her and detained her.

On May 24th, 2008, Ms. Guo went to Degan Town in Jiangjin District to appeal for Falun Gong. Police from the Domestic Security Division in Jiangjin District arrested her and detained her at the Langshan Detention Centre in Jiangjin District. Later she was sentenced to four years in prison. On November 14th, 2008, Ms. Guo was transferred to the Sixth Division of Chongqing Women's Prison. She died as a direct result of persecution at the Women's Prison around 1:00 p.m. on August 9th, 2009.

Related Personnel:

Police Officer Luo: 86-13983455182 (Mobile)
Section Chief Zhang: 86-13500351928 (Mobile)
Director Wang: 86-23-65770211
Li Xiao, Cell Leader: Police Number - 5021086
Wu Damao, Cell Leader: Police Number - 5021001
Zhu Dehua, Vice Cell Leader: Police Number - 5021009
Zhang Li, Director of the Prison Hospital: Police Number - 5021014
Zhang Yong, Chief of the Prison Political Section
Chief of Education Department: Police Number - 5021016 & 5021044
Wang Qing, Procurator of the Fifth Branch of the Chongqing Municipal Procuratorate
Chen Hongwei from the Fifth Branch of the Chongqing Municipal Procuratorate

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/8/21/206913.html