60-Year-Old Ms. Shi Yingchun Dies in Police Custody at Liaoning Province Women's Prison

Name: Shi Yingchun
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Address: Bohai Street, Beining neighbourhood, Lianshan District, Huludao City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Vegetable vendor
Date of Death: March 18th, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 30th, 2008
Most recent place of detention: Liaoning Province Women's Prison
City: Huludao
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Electric shocks, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, forced drug administration, beatings, handcuffs/shackles, imprisonment, torture, force-feedings, extortion, interrogation, detention
Key Persecutors: Li Yajie (warden), Zhou Jie (prison guard), Ji Li (prison guard), Yang Yang, Sun Gang

A snow storm hit Shenyang, Liaoning Province on March 19th, 2010. It was also the day when the family of Ms. Shi Yingchun saw her body at a local funeral home, guarded by a small army of 150 policemen. The police would not allow her eight family members to see her body at the same time. They were made to go into the room in two groups of four. Throughout the entire process, her family members were surrounded by police officers.

When her family inspected her body, they found that some work had been done to conceal wounds. They could, however, still see that her ears were swollen and bruised. There were three small wounds on her hips. There were two pools of blood on her trousers. There were even bite marks on her shoulder.

At 7 a.m. the day before, a man named Jiang knocked on the door of Ms. Shi's home. He lives in Daobeining Community on Bohai Street, Lianshan District, Huludao City. He came to inform Ms. Shi's family that he had received a phone call from Liaoning Province Women's Prison to ask her family to pick her up because she was critically ill.

Because Shi Yingchun practised Falun Gong, she was repeatedly arrested and incarcerated. She was sent to forced labour camps twice for a total of five years prior to 2008. On August 30th, 2008, she was arrested again and sentenced to seven years in prison. She was incarcerated at the Liaoning Province Women's Prison until her death.

Ms. Shi Yingchun had suffered from gum cancer, cholecystitis, neurasthenia, and other diseases before she started practising Falun Gong. She sought medical treatment to ease her suffering, but nothing worked. She started practising Falun Gong in 1995. In just one month, all of her diseases were gone. By following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, she no longer quarrelled with her relatives. She felt that both her spiritual and physical health were greatly improved. Her husband and son also practised Falun Gong. They had a happy and peaceful life before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the suppression of Falun Gong in July 1999.

In the subsequent years, Ms. Shi's family of three were all sent to forced labour camps. Her husband and son were incarcerated at the Huludao City Forced Labour Camp.

Mr. Wang Zhuo, her son, is being held in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. When the family asked the camp to release him temporarily so that he could see his mother before she died, the camp refused. To this day, Wang Zhuo still has no idea that his mother has passed away.

1. Persecution at the Huludao City Detention Centre

On July 23rd, 1999, Ms. Shi Yingchun was arrested when she was doing the Falun Gong exercises in a public park. The local police ransacked her home and confiscated her belongings, including ten copies of the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun, three sets of Falun Gong lecture video tapes, one set of Falun Gong lecture audio tapes, and a dozen other Falun Gong books. Shi Yingchun was incarcerated for seven days.

When Ms. Shi tried to do the Falun Gong exercises in the detention centre, she was kicked by an officer and fell to the floor. She was handcuffed behind her back for 28 consecutive hours, and the handcuffs cut into her skin, resulting in severe swelling. Her legs and feet also turned purple.

2. Second Arrest and Torture at Huludao Detention Centre

On October 5th, 1999, officers from the Lianshan District Police Department arrested Ms. Shi because she refused to give up her spiritual belief in Falun Gong. She was imprisoned at the Huludao City Detention Centre. Warden Li Yajie, a prison guard named Zhou Jie, and another guard brutally tortured her on three different days because she was found practising the Falun Gong exercises and because she refused to renounce Falun Gong.

Once, Li Yajie took Ms. Shi into the hall and told an inmate to take off Ms. Shi's pants. Li then forced her to lie on her stomach on the floor. Li Yajie flogged Ms. Shi's behind with a hard rubber tube. When Li was tired, she asked someone else to take a turn. They also repeatedly slapped Ms. Shi in the face, sometimes with their shoes. Once they even used a spiked baton to beat her, and the spikes punctured her skin with every strike.

Once, when the inmates were out in the courtyard for a break, Zhou Jie called Shi to stand in front of her. Then Zhou began to slap her. When Zhou's hands started to hurt, she took off one of Ms. Shi's shoes and slapped her with it. Soon, Ms. Shi's left eye became too swollen to see out of, but that did not stop the torture.

In order to prevent Ms. Shi from doing the Falun Gong exercises, Li Yajie ordered the guards to cuff her hands behind her back and put shackles around her ankles. One end of a dirty towel was stuffed into her mouth, with the other end tied to the shackles. Then she was forced to walk. Ms. Shi couldn't keep her back straight and every step she took meant excruciating pain. Then she was forced to kneel down for several hours. She was in such excruciating pain that her sweat formed a puddle on the floor. She was deprived of sleep at night, when she was allowed only to sit or stand. One day, after noticing the wounds covering the body of Shi Yingchun, with her hands swollen to the size of grapefruits, even Li Yajie, who was infamous for her brutality, sighed and commented, "Even a person who has committed murder would not have faced this level of torture."

3. Persecution at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

While being held in the Second Women's Section of Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, Ms. Shi went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Prison guard Ji Li called Ms. Shi to the office, where Ji Li and another prison guard attacked her with electric batons. One of them pressed the baton against Ms. Shi's feet while the other pressed a baton against her upper body and face, causing Ms. Shi to shake in agony. Ms. Shi was also forced to stand still for more than 10 consecutive hours. The camp guards ordered prison inmates to torture practitioners in many different ways, including forcing practitioners to squat and bend their heads down for long periods of time.

One night, the camp guards ordered inmates to drag Ms. Shi to the washroom and forced her to sit on a small stool. The inmates dipped a mop in a bucket of dirty water and wiped it back and forth on her face. The inmates moved the mop to Ms. Shi's nose and held it there until she couldn't help but breathe in dirt and filthy water. She was drenched, and her face and hair became sticky.

Once, Ms. Shi refused when the labour camp guards forced her to march as a form of punishment. Ji Li and two other guards attacked her with three electric batons at the same time on her soles, palms, face and mouth. Ms. Shi said that she felt as though her heart had popped out of her chest. After the batons stopped working, Ji Li called a few inmates to hold her up and force her to run up and down the stairs. Several groups of inmates took turns doing this.

After a month of torture, Ms. Shi was transferred to the First Section, where practitioners were known to face an escalated level of torture. Each practitioner was watched closely by two inmates at all times, even while eating, walking, working, using the toilet, or sleeping. The guards encouraged inmates to physically abuse and report on practitioners. It was common for practitioners to be forced to stand still or squat for long periods of time. Guards frequently beat practitioners for no reason. Once, two inmates grabbed Ms. Shi's wrists and repeatedly hit the wall with her hands, causing extensive bruising. Later, guards Dong Bin and Zhang summoned Ms. Shi to the office. They took off her clothes and cuffed her hands behind her back. After they forced Ms. Shi to kneel, the two guards began attacking her with two electric batons.

One day Ms. Shi was found doing the Falun Gong exercises, and was summoned to the office of a captain named Zhang. Zhang took off Ms. Shi's clothes and cuffed her hands behind her back. With one electric baton in hand and another in the recharge cradle, Zhang shocked Ms. Shi in the face, back, and other parts of her body. She lost clumps of hair as a result. After a while, Zhang called an inmate to join in so that they could shock Ms. Shi together. The inmate pressed the electric baton against Ms. Shi's soles, in the area that is most sensitive to pain. In no time, a hole appeared on her foot and it started to bleed, but that did not stop them. Shi Yingchun's face became swollen. Her back and legs hurt so much that she limped for a long time. Ms. Shi was not the only Falun Gong practitioner that the guards tortured. A practitioner from Dalian City was kept in the office next door while Ms. Shi faced torture. The guards wanted the practitioner to hear Ms. Shi screaming in agony in order to frighten her.

Shi Yingchun was tortured in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp for two years until October 24th, 2001. During her incarceration, she suffered a long litany of torture and abuse. She was repeatedly attacked with multiple electric batons and beaten. She lost vision in her left eye as a result of the torture. The long-term torture also caused hypertension.

When officers from Bohai Police Station picked up Ms. Shi from Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, the camp extorted 600 yuan¹ from her for force feeding expenses even though the forced feeding was punitive in nature. In the Bohai Police Station, officer Zhuo Yongpeng forced Ms. Shi to guarantee in writing never to practise Falun Gong in public, appeal for Falun Gong, or put up posters containing any message about Falun Gong.

4. The Third Arrest Leads to Three Years in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

Six days after she was released, Shi Yingchun was arrested again when she was doing the Falun Gong exercises in a public park near the Bohai Police Station. She was sent to Lianshan District Police Station. Later that day she was transferred to Huludao City Detention Centre. She was incarcerated for one month before being sent to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp again. This time she was given three years in the forced labour camp.

One day, the warden Zhao Jinghua beat up Ms. Shi because she refused to fold the bedding according to the guards' requirement. She was also tortured for doing the Falun Gong exercises.

Compared to the physical torture, the mental torment was more cruel. Under the brainwashing and lies of prison guard Qiu Ping, Ms. Shi agreed in writing to give up practising Falun Gong. Ms. Shi was devastated when she realised that she had gone against her heart. She was severely depressed and often wept. She was then sent to a psychiatric hospital against her will, where she was given psychotropic drugs. She was made to take prescription drugs and given unknown injections while there.

5. Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

On August 2nd, 2008, Ms. Shi was distributing materials containing facts about Falun Gong. The police from Bohai Police Station arrested and incarcerated her at the Suizhong Detention Centre. The police then ransacked her home and confiscated almost all of her belongings. She was then sentenced to seven years in prison, and her family was not notified at all. On October 22nd, 2008, Ms. Shi was sent to the Liaoning Province Women's Prison.

At around 3:00 p.m. on October 21st, 2008, the police from Huaji Street Police Station in Lianshan District, Huludao City, including Li Guangyu and the police from the Huludao City Lianshan District Domestic Security Division, broke into the home of Ms. Shi's son, Mr. Wang Zhou, and arrested him. They ransacked his home and confiscated his belongings. Mr. Wang was sent to Shoushan Detention Centre in Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province and then transferred him to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp.

While in Liaoning Province Women's Prison, Ms. Shi was incarcerated in section 8. She was under the supervision of a disciplinary staff member Li Dan and later Yang Yang.

On March 18th, 2010, Ms. Shi died in Liaoning Province Women's Prison.

6. Justice Yet to Be Served

On March 18th, 2010, Shi Yingchun's family was notified by Liaoning Province Women's Prison to pick her up because she was dying.

At 2:30 p.m., eight of Ms. Shi's family members arrived at the prison. Officer Sun Gang and a female officer, Wang Zhi, were waiting for them. They were accompanied by prison physician Wang, disciplinary staff member Yang Yang, and another disciplinary member Zhao.

The family was very anxious to see Shi Yingchun, but the staff would not take them to her. Finally they escorted the family to the prison's guest house. The family demanded, "How is she? Is she still breathing?" The police replied, "Don't rush. Just wait. The captain will tell you what has happened." One family member collapsed on the bed in sorrow upon hearing the reply.

According to disciplinary staff member Zhao, prison inmates responsible for watching Shi Yingchun reported to the prison guards at 2:00 a.m. on March 18th that Ms. Shi complained of chest pain. At 2:30 a.m., the inmates reported to the captain on duty that there was something wrong with her. The captain had three inmates carry Ms. Shi to the prison physician for emergency care. The physician, Wang, gave Ms. Shi two shots for her heart in an attempt to bring up her blood pressure, but they did not help. Next, the prison called the emergency number and had her sent to "739" Hospital for emergency resuscitation. After 30 minutes of resuscitation, the hospital pronounced her dead.

When the family inquired about the cause of death, the prison physician Wang said, "When she was sent to me, she looked pale and was unconscious. No one knows how she died."

The family asked if Ms. Shi faced any physical punishment, but Yang said no. Yang added that Ms. Shi had always been ill with an unhealthy complexion, that she always had hypertension and that she never pleaded guilty and was never docile. The family demanded to know why the prison failed to inform them during the many visits they had paid, but Yang Yang had no reply. The family demanded again, "Why did you not inform her family when she was ill?" A prison guard said that they had difficulty contacting her family. A family member said, "I was just here to visit her on February 8th. She told me that she was healthy and had a good appetite. She said she worked hard every day. How could she have died a month later? I have already given you (Yang Yang) our home phone number and I saw you writing it down." Yang Yang and others had no answer.

Shi Yingchun's husband asked to see her body, but the request was rejected. The prison said that it was too late and told them to return tomorrow.

When the family returned to the guest house, guard Sun Gang started to discuss cremating Shi's body. Sun told the family, "If you do not sign the paper within three days, we will cremate her body anyway, but you will pay for all the expenses. If you agree to sign, we will give you partial compensation."

When the family asked to have another autopsy, the prison agreed on the condition that the family would have to pay for the expense. However, Ms. Shi's family did not have any money. For the past ten years, Shi Yingchun, her husband and her son have faced severe persecution. They lost their jobs and income, and incurred debts. Together the three of them have suffered 18 years of incarceration. The family had no idea that regulations stipulate the prison being responsible for all expenses in such a case.

Ms. Shi's husband gave in to the financial threat and agreed to cremate Shi's body. On the cremation agreement, the prison required her husband to write: "I have no questions about the cause of death. I agree to have her body cremated. I will collect her ashes."

Between March 18th and 20th, the family stayed on the fourth floor of the prison guest house. The family members were under watch and were not allowed to leave the rooms without escort. Outside of the three rooms stood prison guards around the clock. They were not even allowed to go purchase paper money to be burned for the funeral ceremony.

We urge all the kindhearted people around the world to extend your help to rescue Falun Gong practitioners who are now suffering from brutal torture in China. Please help end the ruthless persecution against Falun Gong and prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.

Related report: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/3/29/115681.html

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/4/22/221913.html