Older Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Guo Wenying from Lanzhou Persecuted

Name: Guo Wenying
Gender: Female
Age: 56
Address: Unit 102, Building No. 3, No. 2 RunAn Residential Area, Xizhan, Lanzhou City
Occupation: Formerly employed at the Lanzhou City Industry and Trade Company
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 25th, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Gansu Women's Prison
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, fired from workplace, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use

Since July 20th, 1999, Ms. Guo Wenying has been subjected to long term detentions and persecution for not giving up her belief. She was sentenced to six years of imprisonment in 2003, suffered all kinds of torture in the Gansu Women's Prison, and was held in solitary confinement for over four months.

Detained for Appealing in Beijing

After the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, Ms. Guo went to the central government in Beijing with the sincere intention of explaining the truth about the wonderfulness of Falun Gong and what she had gained from the practice. She was escorted back to the Qilihe Public Security Sub-bureau in Lanzhou City in February 2000 and then sent to Yanjiaping Detention Centre in Qilihe for 15 days of detention.

On the night of September 28th, 2001, Chief Zhang and Officer Sun of the Xizhan Police Station colluded with police from the Qilihe Public Security Sub-bureau. They rushed into Ms. Guo's home and took her to the police station, saying she was practising Falun Gong. She was interrogated the whole night and ordered to write the guarantee statement to stop practising. When she refused, she was sent to Brigade No. 14 at the West Orchard Detention Centre on the afternoon of the 29th.

In protest she went on a hunger strike. Five days later, she was sent to the Dashaping Forced Labour Camp Hospital, where she continued the hunger strike. Thirteen days later, she was near death and was sent home.

Arrested and Sentenced

On September 25th, 2002, police officer Wang from the Lintao County Public Security Bureau and Xi Mingjie from the Qilihe Public Security Sub-bureau conspired with several dozen police officers to surround the building where Guo Wenying was living and pounded on the door and window for several hours with an iron rod until the glass broke. Several hundred residents in the area heard the commotion and gathered to watch.

The officers barged her home, seized her by the hair, and dragged her to the police car. Several layers of her pants were torn from being dragged, and her knees were injured. She was taken to the Lintao County Public Security Bureau before being transferred to the County Detention Centre.

At the Lintao County Public Security Bureau, the police interrogated her, tied her to a chair, and deprived her of sleep for three days and nights. They transferred officers from every county to the their police station to try to extort evidence from her. They worked on her around the clock. Three days later she was sent to a detention centre.

On May 12th, 2003, the Lintao County Court sentenced her to six years of imprisonment. She was transferred from Lintao County Detention Centre to Gansu Women's Prison in July.

Brutally Tortured in Gansu Women's Prison

Gansu Women's Prison guards handcuffed practitioners on hunger strikes to small stools and tortured them with electric batons. Ms. Guo was hung up by her handcuffs on a steel roller door, with her toe tips just barely touching the ground. The guards sent prisoners to frequently ask her whether she would still practise. When she did not answer, they tortured her with several high voltage electric batons, leaving bloody wounds everywhere on her face and head.

On February 2004, they locked her up in confinement because she did not participate in a “politics test.” They did not allow her to wear a cotton-padded jacket in the winter and handcuffed her in the open-air to freeze. In order to force her to denounce the practice, they bound Ms. Guo's hands and feet to iron chair, put an electric baton on the table, intimidated her to try to make her “acknowledge her guilt,” and deprived her of sleep for two days and three nights.

When she was untied from the iron chair, her feet were so swollen and painful that she could not put them down. It felt as if needles were stabbing her feet, and it was difficult for her to stand.

The guards continued to handcuff her to a small stool and played slanderous Falun Gong material on TV. At night, they spread her arms far apart and handcuffed her to a death bed. Such torture lasted for 87 days. She was restricted in the use of the toilet and was not allowed drinking water or given enough food. She became critically ill and had difficulty breathing. Only when she suddenly developed a heart problem was she released from solitary.

After returning to the cell, she was again put in confinement for having a new Falun Gong lecture on her. The prisoners who supervised her were incited to make trouble, claiming that she had beaten them. She was locked up in confinement once again. She was not allowed to wear a cotton-padded jacket and was handcuffed on a small stool for the whole night. She remained confined for over four months.

On November 2005, Wang Zhongmin, who took over the office of the director of the Gansu Province Prison Administrative Bureau, carried out a comprehensive and brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the prisons of the entire province. Ms. Guo Wenying was locked up in a small dark room, deprived of sleep, read virulent rumours that attacked Falun Gong by the prisoners, intimidated, yelled at, and beaten. They again put her in solitary confinement and did not allow her to wear a cotton-padded jacket. She was handcuffed to a small stool outdoors for three cold days, and her hands swelled up like two big steamed buns. She was then subjected to the death bed torture at night.

Guards organised the prisoners to hold an interrogation meeting 15 days later, ordering them to slander Falun Gong. They used every possible strategy in attempting to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] Guo Wenying and even ordered her to memorise the Party's legal provisions or forced her to stand for a long time when she refused.

Despite all this, Ms. Guo was still forced to do hard labour in the daytime. She returned home on September 24th, 2008. Due to being handcuffed for long periods of time, her hands were seriously damaged.

Lanzhou City Industry and Trade Company fired Ms. Guo Wenying and has yet to pay her wages. She is still being persecuted financially.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/1/6/234565.html