Summary of the Persecution of Ms. Liu Weishan, A Teacher in Xiangfan City, Hubei Province, Tortured Until Paralysed and Mentally Disabled

Name: Liu Weishan
Gender: Female
Age: 51
Address: Hanjiang Machinery Factory
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Oct 13th, 2002
Most recent place of detention: Wuhan City Women's Prison
City: Xiangfan City
Province: Hubei Province
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, physical torture, force feeding, sleep deprivation, forced injections/drug administration,
Key Persecutors: Fan Zhiyong, Li Feng

Ms. Liu Weishan was sentenced to four years of imprisonment at the Wuhan City Women Prison in October 2002. She suffered from a mental disorder as result of the severe torture she received in the prison. She was secretly transferred back to the Xiangfan City 364 Hospital (Aero-Space System), and is now paralysed and bedridden. Her muscles have atrophied, causing her lower legs to be "z" shaped and distorted. She is mentally disabled and speaks only a few simple sentences, such as, "I want to go home."

Kind Teacher Tortured Repeatedly

Ms. Liu was a teacher at the Hanjiang Machinery Factory (currently the Aerospace Rescue Equipment Company). She taught English, Chemistry, Music, Geology, and History classes for many years, and was well respected by the teachers and students alike. She was known for being very nice, and was elected as the model employee at the factory and province levels.

Years ago, Ms. Liu had poor health and was often ill. She felt that life was truly hard. After beginning to practise Falun Gong, she became vigourous and healthy. She experienced the wonders of Falun Gong and wanted help others by sharing what she had learned.

After the persecution began in 1999, she found that people all around her were being deceived by the overwhelming lies in the media. She told people not to believe the lies. Her employer placed her under house-arrest.

In 2000, a flier was placed on the factory bulletin board which announced that Jiang was being tried internationally. The Factory Administration and 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) arrested her on her way home. She went on a hunger strike to protest, and was released, but she was only paid 100 yuan¹ each month from then on.

On December 16th, 2000, she was notified to resume her work at the school. As soon as she arrived, she was taken into the Xiangfan City Brainwashing Centre, where the Xiangfan City Political Security Office Chair, Nie Xiaowu, cruelly beat her. She was tied with ropes, kicked, and forced to kneel on the floor. She was detained in the Jianghan Police Station for 18 days.

On July 3rd, 2001, the Factory Security Office forcibly took her from the toilet to the Office. She was deceived into believing that the Xiangfan City Government needed to question her, and that she would return within 24 hours. She was detained for 61 days in the Xiangfan City Forced Labour Camp where she was locked in the small cell² for five days.

One day in April 2002, the police broke into her home and took her Falun Gong books. In May 2002, the Xiangfan City Procuratorate arrested her. She went on hunger strike to protest, was then taken to the Xiangfan City First Hospital where she was force-fed for 15 days and almost died.

Sentenced to Prison after Seventh Arrest

Despite being a good person and teacher, she was arrested seven times because she was steadfast in practising Falun Gong. Originally she was imprisoned for four years. Unwilling to falsely admit to any crimes, she was tortured until she "confessed", and was taken to the Wuhan Women's Prison. When she went on a hunger strike, she was injected with unknown substances and the next day became mentally disabled.

On September 14th, 2002, Ms. Liu was arrested by the police for the seventh time when she was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, and was taken to the First Detention Centre in Xiangfan City. After many failed appeals, she began a hunger strike. She was then force fed by the police. Inmates held her head, hands and feet, and a tube was forced into her stomach through her nose. The police directed the inmates to pinch her, pull her hair, slap her, and strip her. She endured this torture twice a day for 40 days, until finally she was in a very weak condition.

On Oct. 13th, 2002, the already feeble Ms. Liu was secretly sentenced to four years in prison. On Oct. 14th, she was taken to Wuhan Women's Prison.

Practitioners were brutally tortured by the inmates at the Wuhan Women's Prison. In Ward II, police officer Li Feng put practitioners in solitary confinement cells, cuffed their hands behind their backs, and left them alone for days where they could not sleep and were without food.

Practitioners went on hunger strikes to protest their treatment. The police used the inmates' leftover meals along with old, rotten food and soup to force feed the practitioners. Under these harsh conditions, many practitioners suffered mental disorders or even death. One practitioner with a Ph.D. from Beijing University suffered a mental collapse and would madly sweep the floors of the prison.

Mentally Disabled from Cruel Torture

To force Ms. Liu to stop practising Falun Gong, she was injected with unknown substances and was also force-fed unknown drugs which damaged her oesophagus. Only a few months after being taken to the Wuhan Women's prison, Ms. Liu was rendered mentally disabled. Ms. Liu stopped menstruating, her arms and legs trembled, her muscles atrophied, and she became unable to take care of herself. The prison refused to release her. Instead, she was frequently taken to the medical centre and injected with unknown drugs, and tied up with ropes. Her life was in great danger.

To avoid the responsibility of Ms. Liu's imminent death, the prison secretly moved the critically ill Ms. Liu back to the Aerospace 364 Hospital in Xiangfan City on the night of January 31st, 2006. Her name was not recorded in the hospital registration, and two people guarded her around the clock. According to people who visited her at the time, Ms. Liu was skin and bones. Her whole body was contorted and deformed, and her eyes were dull.

After February 11th, 2006, a sign was posted on the door of the room that read: "critically ill, no visitors". People trying to visit her were stopped and questioned. Local practitioners managed to see her and brought her an MP3 player to listen to Falun Gong music. Although this helped her to feel a bit better, the MP3 player was taken away by the head nurse.

Why was Ms. Liu treated so harshly? It was said that the party director of the hospital was the former 610 Office director, Fan Zhiyong, of the Hanjian Machinery Factory, and responsible for the persecution of Ms. Liu.

Ms. Liu is now paralysed, bed-ridden and her muscles are atrophied. She can only mutter a few words and is mentally ill. The 610 Office notified her family members to take her home. The family members pointed out that the once healthy Ms. Liu had been tortured until she became paralysed and mentally disabled, and they refused to take her home.

Ms. Liu was a perfectly healthy, forthright school teacher, who was held in prison for three years for no apparent reason. When she refused to admit any guilt, she was tortured by the prison guards until she had a mental breakdown. Ms. Liu's life has been endangered by the First Detention Centre in Xianfan City and the Wuhan Women's Prison.

Note

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

2. Small cell - The detainee is locked up alone in a very small cell. The guards handcuff the practitioner's hands behind his back in a fixed position, in which the practitioner can neither move nor lie down. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell.

Related report: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2009/12/21/113272.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/1/18/216484.html