I Was Brutally Tortured in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison

Name: Zhao Huijun
Gender: Female
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 28th, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Liaoning Province Women’s Prison
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, torture, force-feeding

I was detained in the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on December 28th, 2007. The person directly in charge of persecuting me was Li Heqiao, a section chief of administrative affairs in Prison Ward Nine. Criminal inmates Shen Jingchao and Yang Dongmei were assigned to constantly watch me.

While in the prison, I refused to read the articles slandering Falun Gong. As a result the guards began to assault me on the third day after I arrived. They first used a slipper, and Shen Chaojing hit me on my head and violently kicked my knees. Yang Dongmei joined her to torture me. Every day when other inmates left for work, the pair began torturing me. They forced me to squat at night for hours, until 3:00 a.m. On one occasion they even forced me to squat for an entire night. Yang Dongmei had a violent past, and before my arrival she broke another practitioner’s arm.

To protest the violence, I began a hunger strike. A week later, my body turned red and I had difficulty walking, but physical and verbal abuse did not stop. Yang Dongmei and criminal cell head Wen Lianying tried to force-feed me. My blood pressure dropped to as low as 50, so they took me to a hospital. The doctor said that I was suffering from heart and liver failure. I refused the treatment in the hospital and five days later I was sent back to prison.

Three days later, Shen Jingchao went back to the workshop, and her replacement was Jiang Ping, a violent murderer who was known to have chopped her victim’s body into pieces. Jiang is an evil person whom the guards use to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Jiang Ping forced me to squat barefooted in the cold harsh wind on January 19th, 2008. Wen Lianying brought a big steel case full of ice. They tied me up with rubber bands, taped my mouth, and threw me into the ice box, then poured water all over me. They stripped my clothes off, grabbed my hair, and dragged me on the floor. They whipped me with a belt, kicked me, and crushed my toes. I was tortured until they got tired or when I lost consciousness. One day, Jiang Ping threatened she would insert a hard object into my vagina, but soon she began vomiting and had diarrhoea. For several days she could not swallow without vomiting. I told her she was too inhumane, and she was experiencing retribution. She let out a strange laugh, "What kind of humanity do you expect in prison? I can kill you like stepping on an ant! Who do you think you are?"

I was tortured at least two or three times per day. At night, I was handcuffed to the steel pipework in front of a door so others could see me.

After I was sent to work in the workshop, Jiang Ping and another inmate, Liu Chunzhen, forced me to do difficult jobs. My legs were crippled and it hurt to walk. Due to renal dysfunction, I was often incontinent. After being stepped on, I often lost control of my fingers and toes. I had trouble picking things up, and the pain often kept me from sleeping. I could not turn over in bed and could not even squat to sit on the toilet. Even today, I still suffer from frequent headaches and blurred vision. Because of muscle atrophy in my arms and legs, I often feel numb and cold, and my heart rate often exceeds 100 beats per minute.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/5/26/241485.html