Sixty-Year-Old Ms. Lu Yaxuan Persecuted Numerous Times

Name: Lu Yaxuan
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Former nurse at the Tuberculosis Hospital at Jilin Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 28th, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Changchun Women's Prison
City: Jiutai, Changchun
Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, beatings, imprisonment, torture, extortion, fired from workplace, physical restraint, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use
Key Persecutors: Policeman Yu Hongwu from Nanshan Road Police Station in Jiutai, Jiutai Police Department, Changchun Police Department, Jiutai Court, Changchun Middle Court

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Lu Yaxuan has been tortured severely during the past ten years of brutal persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She was detained six times, sent to a forced labour camp once, and sentenced to prison once.

On May 19th, 2000, Ms. Lu went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Right after she returned home, she was arrested by policeman Yu Hongwu from the Nanshan Road Police Station in Jiutai, and sent to a detention centre. Two days later, hospital president Jia Shuhua, clerk Zhao Shuhua, record clerk Xing Jie, Shi Jingtang, and personnel from the Tuberculosis Hospital in Jilin Province went to Ms. Lu's home. Jia Shuhua made Ms. Lu sign a termination notification letter. The communist party committee decided to fire Ms. Lu from work.

On June 22nd, 2000, Ms. Lu went to Beijing, where she was again arrested by personnel from the Changchun Liaison Office and then detained in a hotel. Two policemen from the Political Affairs and Defence Section of the Jiutai Police Department took her back to Jiutai. Ms. Lu was detained at the Jiutai Detention Centre for ten days, and was sent to a forced labour camp for a year. She was forced to work for 16 to 20 hours a day without a midday break.

After Ms. Lu was released from the forced labour camp, she worked as a temporary employee with a former employer. In August of 2001, Ms. Lu and other female Falun Gong practitioners had 200 yuan¹ confiscated from them by two policemen while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong in the residential area of Yingkuang.

On the morning of September 22nd, 2001, Yu Hongwu and another policeman from the Nanshan Road Police Station in Jiutai went to the hospital where Ms. Lu worked. They tried to make Ms. Lu write a guarantee letter to renounce practising Falun Gong, but Ms. Lu refused. Yu Hongwu got angry, and he and two other policemen dragged Ms. Lu down the stairs by her feet. Ms. Lu's head hit the stairs and made a loud noise. She shouted, “The police are wrongfully arresting people!” Employees from the first and second floor went to the stairs to look. Ms. Lu was dragged from the third floor all the way down to the police car outside. She was taken to the Nanshan Road Police Station and was detained for six hours.

At 11:00 p.m. on September 28th, about five policemen from the Political Affairs and Defence Section of the city police department went to Ms. Lu's home intending to arrest her. However, she was not home. The policemen said they would go back the next day and parked a police car behind her building to monitor her. Ms. Lu was forced to stay away from home in order to avoid being arrested.

In the mid-morning of November 28th, 2002, Ms. Lu was arrested on the sixth floor of a residential building by Li Dahai, and five other policemen from the Political Affairs and the Defence Section of the Jiutai Police Department. She was dragged to the police car and taken to the first floor in the Jiutai Police Department building. Policemen covered Ms. Lu's head with a coat, and punched and kicked her. They tied her up on the tiger bench². They tied her feet and forced them downward, tied her hands and pulled them upward, and then they placed a metal bar on her hands and pressed them downward. Ms. Lu's arms suffered severe nerve damage, and she could not lift her left arm for several months.

That night, section chief Liu from the Changchun Police Department and two other policemen interrogated Ms. Lu. Liu punched Ms. Lu in the temple, knocking her unconscious. They poured cold water on Ms. Lu to wake her up. Then policeman Qu Chunsen came in, sneered and asked her, “How was it?” Ms. Lu did not say anything. Ms. Lu was tortured for nearly 30 hours, during which time she was not allowed to eat, drink, or use the toilet. Ms. Lu was sent to the Jiutai Detention Centre on November 29th.

On November 7th, 2003, the Jiutai Court planned to sentence Ms. Lu. At 7:00 that morning, a group of policemen went into the women's ward and started to drag Ms. Lu out. Ms. Lu resisted. The policemen then dragged and beat her at the same time. By the time she was dragged outside, her coat and sweaters had both come off. Several policemen used rope as thick as a finger to bind her. Her hands were cuffed behind her and she was carried into the police car. Once they got to the courthouse, Ms. Lu started to shout, and several policemen started beating her. A policeman punched her in the mouth, knocking out one of her front teeth. A policeman behind her strangled her neck with a rope and she could not breathe. They pulled her into a room and started the hearing. Ms. Lu was not allowed to talk or defend herself. Several policemen stood next to her. They would punch and shock her with an electric baton if she made a sound. Ms. Lu sat on the floor because she could not get up after all the beatings. She was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Ms. Lu appealed the sentence, and the Changchun Middle Court convened on January 9th, 2004. However, they did not change her sentence. They immediately sent Ms. Lu to the Changchun Women's Prison. They did not allow Ms. Lu's family to visit her or to send any clothing for her.

Note

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

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/12/12/233549.html