Ms. Su Wei Arrested Again After Enduring Torture at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

Name: Su Wei
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Address: No. 34 in Wujian Dormitory of Tianshuiyuan on Jintai Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing City
Occupation: Accountant
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 11th, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Beijing City Chaoyang District Detention Centre
City: Beijing City
Persecution Suffered: Detention, Imprisonment, Torture, Sleep Deprivation, Home Ransacked, Physical Constraint, Electric Shock, Forced Labour.

Due to her Falun Gong practice and faith in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, Beijing practitioner Ms. Su Wei has been arrested and persecuted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials on several occasions. Ms. Su was detained twice in forced labour camps, and endured inhuman torture at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. On September 11th, 2009, she was arrested again, and currently is detained at Beijing's Chaoyang Detention Centre. Additionally, she may be subjected to an unjust sentence.

Ms. Su Wei, 52 years old, was a retired accountant. Her husband lost his job, her child was recently admitted to the university, and she has an 85 year-old mother and 92 year-old mother-in-law at home.

Ms. Su began practising Falun Gong between 1996 and 1997. When the CCP began to persecute Falun Gong in 2000, she went to Beijing to appeal for justice to the government. In the summer of 2001, she was persecuted for one month at a brainwashing centre managed by the Liulitun Police Station in the Chaoyang District of Beijing and local management committee. After she was released, in order to explain the facts about Falun Gong, she compiled informational materials, signed them with her real name, then dropped them off at the 610 Office¹, local police station and local management committee. On September 11th, 2003, when she was shopping at a market early in the morning, police officers arrested her. Later, she was sentenced to two years in a forced labour camp, and detained at the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp, where she suffered from various torture methods, including "standing for extended duration", hypothermia and sleep deprivation.

On February 24th, 2006, just five and a half months after she was released from the labour camp, seven to eight security guards and police officers from the Chaoyang District's Liulitun Police Station in Beijing City broke into her home, arrested her, then ransacked her home. They accused her of keeping Falun Gong books at home, and took her to another forced labour camp where she remained for two years and six months. She was detained at the No. 6 Team in Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp, and subjected to torture. Because she did not renounce her beliefs, her term was extended an additional six months by the forced labour camp officials, and subsequently, she was secretly transferred to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp to undergo additional torture.

Prior to the Beijing Olympics, officials from the Beijing Forced Labour Camp secretly transferred approximately 100 practitioners to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in northeast China. At about 3 or 4 a.m. on July 14th, 2008, Ms. Su was awakened suddenly; a few police officers began packing her personal belongings while another two male police officers stood by, holding handcuffs and electric batons. As soon as Ms. Su tried to challenge them, they came at her immediately, stuffed her mouth with a pillowcase, handcuffed her, forcefully took her outside, then placed her into a police vehicle waiting outside. There were a few practitioners in the vehicle already, their heads pressed down and squeezed under the seats, making it very difficult for them to breathe. Police officers covered their heads tightly with hoods, with only their eyes, noses and mouths exposed. The practitioners were kept under these conditions for the entire 10 hour journey.

Ms. Su was subjected to inhuman torture at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. Guards used a vicious and cruel punishment, being "Hung Up", on Ms. Su and other practitioners. This torture is just like "being split by five horses"; after they were handcuffed, their hands were spread apart, then locked to the leg of one of the two beds. Then, two male guards forcefully pulled each of the two beds apart in opposite directions, until the practitioners' arms couldn't be stretched any more. Another method of executing this punishment is to tie both legs to one side of the bed, then the body is dragged underneath the bed, with both arms locked to the horizontal bar of the other side of the bed; this way, one's body is stretched to the maximum. This torture continues for a few days, and the practitioner is not allowed to use the washroom, nor provided with meals. In the winter, guards strip practitioners down to their underwear. Their methods are extremely brutal.

When the torture begins, both arms feel as if they're being pulled off; both hands being handcuffed suffer extreme pain as well. After a short while, the hands turn black and blue, and are heavily swollen; the handcuffs cut into the flesh, causing profuse bleeding.

When Ms. Su still did not renounce her beliefs, guards tied her legs tightly together, then they tied her legs to a board, wrapping them together with a long strip of clothing, from the top of her legs to her ankles. Her legs were tied perfectly straight, and over time, she felt just like she was sitting on a "tiger bench²". Her knees, ankles, the back of her hands, wrists, both arms, neck, every joint in her spine, her waist - every part of her body was in extreme pain.

At the labour camp, guards also shocked her with electric batons. They used several cruel torture methods to punish Ms. Su and other practitioners; they forced them to participate in hard labour, and overloaded them with work daily.

Police officers have been tracking Ms. Su. This February when Ms. Su returned home, she saw plainclothes police officers watching her home entrance. When the Oct 1st National Day was approaching, the CCP exhausted their means of persecuting practitioners. On September 11th, Ms. Su was arrested again, and is currently detained at the Beijing Chaoyang Detention Centre.

After Ms. Su was arrested, officials from the Beijing Chaoyang Police Sub-Bureau tried to hide her by taking her to the Chaoyang District Taiyanggong Police Station (not her local police station) first, then transferred her to the Beijing Chaoyang Detention Centre. Ms. Su may now be facing an unjust sentence.

Beijing City Chaoyang District Police Bureau: 86-10-85953400
Beijing City Chaoyang Police Sub-Bureau: 86-10-65522452
Taiyanggong Police Station: 86-10-64212857
Beijing City Chaoyang Detention Centre: 86-10-64429966

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.

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/10/12/210209.html