Ms. Gong Xianghui from Changsha City Arrested and Beaten by Police

Ms. Gong Xianghui, 36, from Changsha City was approached by two male police officers while walking down the street at around 11 a.m. on August 1st, 2010. They dragged Ms. Gong into their police vehicle and drove her to the police station, where she was brutally beaten by officers Zeng Yi and Zheng Kai. Her face, eyes, thighs, and other parts of the body were covered with bruises. She was sent to the Third Detention Centre in Changsha City on the same day and has not been released to date.

Ms. Gong is a former technician of the Shuguang Electric Group in Hunan Province. She started to practise Falun Gong in 1996. She has been repeatedly arrested and mistreated by the authorities since the Chinese Communist Party initiated the persecution in 1999.

In January 2001, over ten officials from the local community office and from Ms. Gong's workplace arrested her, her father-in-law, and her mother-in-law from home and took them to the Furong District Brainwashing Centre in Changsha City. Since Ms. Gong's husband had to work every day, her one-year-old son Yuanyuan was detained with her at the brainwashing centre. Three months later, Yuanyuan was sent to his maternal grandmother's home.

During the brainwashing sessions, practitioners were forced to read books and watch videos that slandered Falun Gong on a daily basis. They were also frequently beaten by the police.

When Ms. Gong and her in-laws refused to give their fingerprints, the officers dragged them to an isolated room and four officers brutally beat them. Ms. Gong's body was covered with deep bruises. She was also forced to kneel down on the ground, and then an officer grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up with full force. The officers grabbed her father-in-law's fingers and bent them backward, while yelling, "We will break your fingers!" They also bent her mother-in-law's arm toward the back so harshly that it nearly broke, and she was not able to not lift her arm for ten months after that. Ms. Gong's in-laws were over 60 years old at the time, and they weren't released until April 2003.

Ms. Gong was six months pregnant at the time of her detainment, and the brainwashing centre officials forced her to abort the baby.

Ms. Gong was released in October, 2003, after being imprisoned at the brainwashing centre for nearly three years. Less than half a year later, on March 8th, 2004, she was arrested and detained again when she visited a fellow practitioner who had just been released from a forced labour camp. Soon after that, she was fired by her employer.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/8/6/228018.html