Ms. Sun Fudi Repeatedly Arrested and Tortured Since July 20th, 1999

Name: Sun Fudi
Gender: Female
Age: 57
Address: Xinglongbao Village, Jiahe Town, Pulandian City in Dalian City
Occupation: Farmer

Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 23rd, 2009
Most recent Place of Detention: Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City

City: Dalian City
Province: Liaoning Province
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, beatings, solitary confinement, torture, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use, denied visitation
Key Persecutors: Zhang Jun, Zhang Huan, Zhang Zhuohui, Zhang Lei, Fang Yehong, Zhang Qinghai, Sheng, Ren, Zhang Lianqun

Ms. Sun Fudi, 57, is a villager in Xinglongbao Village, Jiahe Town, Pulandian City, under the jurisdiction of Dalian City in Liaoning Province. On June 23rd, 2009, she was arrested by village Communist Party officials and plainclothes officers from the Harbin Road Police Station in the Industrial Development District of Dalian City, the Pulandian City Police Department, and the Jiahe Police Station. The officers searched her home and took away valuables. In March 2010, Ms. Sun suffered from ascites resulting from a bladder expansion due to torture she endured in the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City. She was released and returned home on April 20th, 2010.

On the morning of June 23rd, 2009, Ms. Sun Fudi was working in the fields. She was heading back home around 10:00 a.m. On her way home, she noticed that two people were following her. She thought they might be just passing by. When she was only about 40 yards from her home, Wang Xuanfu, head of the village, led a group of plainclothes police officers to her. Wang said she was needed for a talk. Ms. Sun told them whatever they had to say, they could do so right there outside her home. Wang insisted on going into her home to talk. Ms. Sun told her that she did not have the keys on her. The village head told the other people where to find the keys outside her home. Some of the people had been watching her home. They spotted where Ms. Sun's husband had placed the keys.

This group of people started looking around as soon as they forced their way inside. Ms. Sun asked, “What do you intend to do?” They answered that they would search her home. She asked, “Do you have a search warrant?” The officers said, “We can issue one right away.” They wrote up a warrant and started searching her home. They confiscated her personal valuables, including a computer, a printer, a DVD burner, DVDs, paper, ink, USB drives, an MP3 player, and an older CD player. This group of plainclothes officers were from the Harbin Road Police Station in the Industrial Development District of Dalian City. Ms. Sun was taken to the Harbin Road Police Station at around noon. She was transferred to the Yaojia Detention Centre later that afternoon.

Ms. Sun was held at the Yaojia Detention Centre for over 50 days. Her family was denied the right to visit her. On August 14th, 2009, she was sentenced to two years of forced labour and taken to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City. In the labour camp, Ms. Sun refused to be “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. The labour camp guards resorted to brutal torture. They forced her to squat down and bend over for extended hours. She was also handcuffed and hit in the face. The guards also used an MP3 player to blast slanderous propaganda into her ears with ear buds.

Officers and prison guards who directly participated in the mental and physical abuse include Zhang Jun, Zhang Huan, Zhang Zhuohui, Zhang Lei, Fang Yehong, among others.

Benefits of Practising Falun Gong

Ms. Sun Fudi started practising Falun Gong in February 1998. Before that, she suffered numerous illnesses including pain along the her sciatic nerve, low blood pressure, lymph node tuberculosis, bronchitis, stomach problems, and easily catching colds year round. Because of the low income in the countryside, whenever she was ill, which was the norm rather than exception, she would argue and fight with her husband. Hers was a family of tension and turmoil. After she started practising Falun Gong, not only were all her illnesses gone, her temperament also changed. Hers became a harmonious family, and she has treated her parents-in-law with kindness.

Arrest and Torture on Numerous Occasions

On July 20th, 1999, the first day the Chinese Communist Party launched the nationwide campaign to suppress Falun Gong, Ms. Sun went to Pulandian City to speak out on behalf of Falun Gong. That night she was arrested in Pulandian City and taken back to the local police station in her town. She was held till noon on July 21st, when she was released.

At around 10:00 p.m. on July 22nd, the local police officers took her from her home back to the police station. She was held in a tiny room of less than 20 square feet. On the morning of July 23rd, the police forced Ms. Sun to write a “Guarantee Statement” to not practise Falun Gong. The officers also forced her to watch a television broadcast from Chinese Central Television. They released her around 1:00 p.m. that afternoon.

On April 10th, 2000, Ms. Sun was working in a privately held factory. At about 5:00 p.m. Wang Guojing, village Party secretary, and Wang Xuanfu, head of the village, went to look for Ms. Sun. They asked whether she still practised Falun Gong. Ms. Sun told them that she did. The two top village officials told her that if she could say she no longer practised Falun Gong, they would not report her to the police station, otherwise they would have to do it. Ms. Sun firmly told them, “I do practise Falun Gong.”

On the morning of April 11th, three or four police officers from the local police station showed up at Ms. Sun's workplace. A political and judiciary committee party secretary also came. They forcibly took Ms. Sun to the police station. Liu Wei, the police station director, Chen, the political instructor, and an officer with the surname Zheng took turns trying to coerce Ms. Sun into giving up practising Falun Gong. Ms. Sun rejected their demand firmly. At around 3:00 p.m., the police took her to the city police department. She was later transferred to the city detention centre, where she was held for 78 days before being released.

On May 11th, 2001, Ms. Sun and two other practitioners went to the Lianshan area. As soon as they arrived through public transportation, several local police officers followed them. The officers surrounded the practitioners. They tried to take the practitioners to the police station, but the practitioners refused to cooperate. The officers ended up dragging and carrying the practitioners to the police station. A large crowd gathered to see what was going on. The practitioners were held in isolation, one in each room, for interrogation. Ms. Sun was held on the second floor. That afternoon, the police even brought Ms. Sun's uncle and her 73-year-old mother to the police station. The officers told her that if she agreed to not practice Falun Gong, she was free to go home with her mother. Ms. Sun refused to comply.

That night, Zhang Qinghai, director of the police station, held a charged electric baton and said to Ms. Sun, “The country no longer allows you to practise, so why do you still practise?” Ms. Sun told him about how she benefited from Falun Gong. Zhang immediately started shocking Ms. Sun while yelling, “You still want to practise?” He kept torturing Ms. Sun and started sweating. He then unbuttoned his jacket and made a cup of tea. After a brief break, he started shocking Ms. Sun again. At this time, the political instructor Sheng came upstairs to the second floor. He pushed and held Ms. Sun on the ground and stepped on her. Both Sheng and Zhang shocked Ms. Sun with electric batons simultaneously. It took a long time before they stopped. They then did not allow Ms. Sun to either stand or sit. They ordered her to squat down. When she asked to use the toilet, Zhang told her to simply urinate in her trousers. Throughout that night, she was handcuffed.

The next morning, officers from the city police department came to take video recordings. Ms. Sun refused to cooperate and would not face the camera. After videotaping, Sheng came over to pull on her hair and kicked her twice. He pulled so hard that clumps of hair were torn out. At noon, she was taken to the ground floor. She heard thumping sounds on the second floor and knew the officers were torturing a male practitioner. When the male practitioner was brought downstairs, he had no jacket on. She asked him where his jacket was. He answered that it had been torn apart while the officers were shocking him. In addition to Zhang and Sheng, a third officer with the name Ren also tortured him with an electric baton at the same time. The practitioners were taken to the city police department that afternoon. At the end of the day, they were taken to the crime response squad.

That night, Zhang Lianqun and another officer, also surnamed Zhang, interrogated the practitioners. They deprived the practitioners of sleep for 48 hours. When the practitioners were taken to the detention centre, she found bruises all over her body as a result of electric shocks when she took off her clothes before sleeping. An inmate with a master's degree, who was awaiting the outcome of a financial criminal case, told her that she could file lawsuits against the officers since what they did was against the law. Ms. Sun noticed that even the inmates knew Falun Gong practitioners were good people. Ms. Sun was sentenced to two years of forced labour. On July 9th, 2001, she was taken to the Dalian Forced Labour Camp.

As soon as Ms. Sun walked through the gate of the labour camp, she saw slogans posted on the wall. Zhao, head of the labour camp division, asked Ms. Sun to sign her name on the slogan. She refused, so Zhao slapped her repeatedly. Zhao then conducted a body search, and she took a wrist watch from Ms. Sun. When Ms. Sun was about to be released, she asked where the watch was, but she never got it back.

After Ms. Sun was released, the head of the village showed up at her home. He told her to report to the police station. He also asked her to pay 2,000 yuan¹ to attend a brainwashing class in the city. Ms. Sun did not obey his order. The head of the village looked for her three times a week. Ms. Sun asked him, “On what grounds do you want me to attend the class?” The village head replied, “This was based on an official document.” Ms. Sun asked to see the document, but the village head was never able to produce one.

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/12/7/233388.html