Practitioner Wang Huafen From Huai'an City of Jiangsu Province Suffers Persecution

Name: Wang Huafen
Gender: Female
Age: 48
Address: Unknown
Occupation: former employee of Second Motor Factory of Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Punan Travel Agency
City: Huai'an
Province: Jiangsu
Persecution Suffered: sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, fired from workplace, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Ms. Wang Huafen started practising Falun Gong in 1997. She has been repeatedly arrested, detained, and tortured by various methods such as deprivation of sleep, being forced to sit in an iron chair, hanging by handcuffed wrists. She was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Below is an account of the persecution Ms. Wang has suffered.

After the persecution began in July 1999, she and several other practitioners kept going to the park to do the Falun Gong exercises and, as a result, they were arrested by Zhakou Police Station. In the latter half of 1999, her home was ransacked multiple times by the local authorities, and each time the police refused to show any warrant or legal documents. They confiscated everything that they deemed related to Falun Gong.

In July 2000, Ms. Wang went to Beijing to speak out for Falun Gong. Police officer Sun from Zhakou Police Station and an official surnamed Zhao from Zhakou Neighbourhood Committee took her back from Beijing and detained her for fifteen days at the Huai'an City Detention Centre. After release, she was fired by her work place and lost her sole source of income.

In February 2001, Ms. Wang was arrested and taken to Liangshi Hotel by a group of government officials including policemen Wu Jiansheng, Zhao Yandong and Zhao Kai from Huai'an City "610 Office" (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), Fang Ke who was Qinghe Police Department deputy chief and director of "610 Office", and policemen from the local political security division. During her detention she was deprived of sleep for 24 hours, forced to stand for long periods of time, and continuously interrogated day and night. As she became extremely tired and fell on the ground from standing, police officer Wang Jianzhun kicked her hard, forced a table's weight on her legs and then set his body weight on the table. After being tortured like this four days, Ms. Wang was transferred to Huai'an City Detention Centre and detained there for over 20 days. Afterward, she was taken back to the Liangshi Hotel for another four days of torture.

In August 2001, Ms. Wang was arrested from her work at the Huaiyin City Poultry Factory and taken to a brainwashing centre in Huaiyin. In the brainwashing centre, she and other practitioners were forced daily to watch TV programmes defaming Falun Gong. The government officials slandered Falun Gong and coerced her to write statements to defame Falun Gong in line with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policy. As she refused, the authorities transferred her to a small room in the Ba'er Hospital's Guesthouse, where she was deprived of sleep, food and water for six consecutive days. At nights Wang Jianzhun and other policemen would beat her. The authorities also threatened her family multiple times and coerced her husband to divorce her. In September, Ms. Wang was forced to flee her home and become displaced to avoid further persecution. In October 2001, she was arrested once again. In 2002, she was sentenced to four and a half years in prison by the CCP controlled Qinghe Court and detained at Nantong City Women's Prison, Jiangsu Province.

In August 2007, she was cooking at meal at home when a group of policemen, including Zhao Kai from Huai'an City 610 Office, Wang Jianzhun, Chang Shulin and Yang from Qinghe City 610 Office, broke into her home and arrested her without any warrant or legal documents. Her home was ransacked. She was locked up in the basement of Dongtu Hotel in Huai'an with her head covered in a hood for five days. She was forced to sit on an iron chair every day. Sometimes she was forced to raise her arms and would be beaten if she refused. She was hung by handcuffs. Sometimes she was handcuffed with both hands behind her back for a long time, which caused her body to shiver from pain and pass out five times. Policeman Chang Shulin would slap her face as he wished. She felt dizzy from the slapping and her face was swollen beyond recognition. After she passed out, policeman Zhao Kai would yank her hair back and forth.

After she was locked up, the authorities would not give the reason for her arrest and detention to her family. After five days, her family and friends learned her whereabouts but the authorities deceived her family and promised to release her soon. After her family left, the authorities covered her head with a hood and transferred her to local CCP school guesthouse, where she was tortured for eight days continuously. As she refused to give up her practice of Falun Gong, the angry policemen transferred her to the detention centre and detained her there for over a month. Later she was send to the Judong Women's Forced Labour Camp in Jiangsu Province.

As a result of years of detention and torture, Ms. Wang's health became extremely fragile and she suffered high blood pressure. The labour camp authorities refused to take her on account of her high blood pressure. The police had to take her back to Huai'an and detained her for another week before releasing her.

In August 2008, Ms. Wang was arrested once again by deputy police chief Feng Jianhuai of Qingpu Police Department and policemen Yang Aimin and Zhang Shinong from the national security team. They detained her at Punan Travel Agency for nine days continuously. Everyday they would interrogate her day and night, depriving her of sleep and causing both physical and mental suffering.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/11/16/32584.html