Ms. He Xiufang, 58, from Gansu Province Arrested Again and Subjected to Physical and Mental Torture

Name: He Xiufang
Gender: Female
Age: 58
Address: Longxi County, Gansu Province
Occupation: Retired employee

Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 11th, 2010
Most recent place of detention: Longxi County Detention Centre
City: Longxi County
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, physical constraint, torture, forced labour reform, beatings, interrogation, sleep deprivation, forced labour, solitary confinement.

At around 10:00 p.m. on September 11th, 2010, Falun Gong practitioners He Xiufang, Yang Juxiang, and Wang Shuxun from Gansu Province were arrested by police officers near Fuxing Township, Gaotaishan Town, Longxi County. They are currently detained in the Longxi County Detention Centre.

Longxi County National Security Team leader Lu Dechang led the Xibei Aluminum Branch Security Department, and West Suburban Police Substation officers Dou Lianwan, Gao Mingqi, Xie Weihong, and Chen Guangyao to ransack He Xiufang's home at 2:00 a.m. that same night. The next afternoon they ransacked the home again, confiscating the family computer. They also took a computer and other personal property from Wang Shuxun's home.

He Xiufang is a retired employee of Xibei Aluminum Products Factory of Longxi County, Gansu Province. She started practising Falun Gong in 1998. She had multiple diseases before she started the practice, but after practising all of her diseases disappeared, and her temper and personality also improved. However, during the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ten-year persecution of Falun Gong, He Xiufang has been arrested, detained in a forced labour camp, imprisoned and forced into brainwashing sessions. She has suffered endless physical and mental torture.

In December 2000, Ms. He travelled to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and was arrested and detained in Huairou. She was later transferred to a detention centre in Tianjin, where she was detained for 19 days. During this period, the police handcuffed her hands and feet. They made it so she had no way to stand, sleep, eat, or use the toilet. They also cuffed her hands behind her back, like a death-row inmate. Nineteen days later security personnel from the Xibei Aluminum Products Factory picked her up and transferred her to another detention centre.

On January 21st 2001, the Longxi County Court put six Falun Gong practitioners on trial in front of the Xibei Aluminum Products Factory Club. Five of them had their mouths sealed with red cloth and could not talk. He Xiufang was one of them. She was sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp. The sentences of the other Falun Gong practitioners were: Mr. Zhang Bo was imprisoned, Mr. Yang Faqiang was imprisoned, and Ms. Wang Xiuhua, Ms. Wang Yanmei, and Ms. Li Dongmei, were each sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp.

In 2002 the Xibei Aluminum Products Factory planned to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners and force them to give up their Falun Gong cultivation. He Xiufang was forced to leave home to avoid arrest.

At around 6:00 p.m. on April 29th, 2002, He Xiufang and Falun Gong practitioner Chen Shufen were arrested by police at the Lanzhou City Train Station. The police covered He Xiufang's head with a black plastic bag, and Chen Shufen's head was covered with a pair of trousers. The police drove them to the Lanzhou City Public Security Bureau in a black police car. At around 10:00 p.m., personnel from the Dingxi City Public Security Bureau drove them to the Dingxi City Food Building. In a room with all of the windows covered with newspaper, the police threatened them with electric batons and slapped their faces. In five days, He Xiufang had been handcuffed, interrogated, tortured, and deprived sleep. He Xiufang was transferred to the Longxi Detention Centre on the night of May 3rd, 2002, and on May 4th transferred to Weiyuan Detention Centre. In July 2002, she was again transferred to Longxi Detention Centre.

During this period, Ms He was sentenced to three years of prison at the Gansu Province Women's Prison. He Xiufang was subjected to inhuman torture in the prison. She had to get up at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m., and couldn't go to bed until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., and sometimes not until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. Every day she was forced to work like a slave with extended hours, doing embroidery, cutting threads, sealing medicine boxes, and so on. In November 2005, in order to force her to renounce her belief in Falun Gong, the prison guards detained her in a dark room and deprived her of sleep. Each of her movements was followed and watched by several assigned prisoners. The purpose was to destroy her, both mentally and physically. The guards also combined this torture with other methods. The high-pressure threatening environment and torture severely traumatized He Xiufang and affected her mind and personality.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/9/25/230119.html