Ms. Hu Shenhua from Yi County, Hebei Imprisoned for Over Eight Years

Name: Hu Shenhua
Gender: Female
Age: 50
Address: Yi County, Baoding City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 13th, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp
City: Baoding
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, extortion, interrogation, detention

During the Communist regime's 12-year persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Hu Shenhua from Yi County, Baoding City in Hebei Province spent eight and a half years in prison, where she experienced brutal torture.

The following is Ms. Hu's description of part of the persecution she went through during the past 10 years.

I was arrested by Yi County police on June 27th, 2001 on my way to Sanjianyu Village to hand out Falun Gong brochures. In April 2002, I was sentenced to eight years in prison by Baoding City Intermediate Court and detained in Mancheng Taixing Prison, Shijiazhuang Second Prison, and later in Hebei Women's Prison. I was released in June 2009 and a year later, I was again seized and sent to Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp for a year. Since December 2010, I have been released on medical parole for high blood pressure.

From July 11th to 18th, 2001, six policemen from the Yi County police department interrogated and tortured me in the detention centre for seven days and eight nights.

On July 11th, 2001, in the afternoon, I was taken to a room in the detention centre. Officer Ji Baoli from the criminal section viciously slapped me in the face and Ma Xinjian kicked and punched me.

On July 12th, in the morning, Ma Xinjian and Ji Baoli put big, heavy shackles on my legs, tied my hands behind my back with a rope, and then Ma pushed my head back while Ji abruptly lifted my arms up. Instantly I was breathless and in deep pain. They did this three times, until my whole body was shaking. The rope cut deeply into my wrists and Ji proceeded to hit my buttocks and legs with a thick, wooden stick.

Over the next three days, they tortured me with instruments such as bamboo boards and rubber clubs. I was not allowed to sleep at night.

On the morning of July 16th, Zhang Jianhua instructed someone to handcuff me in a rather low position, so that I could neither completely stand up nor squat down. Several men punched and slapped me in the face. My wrists were bleeding. Zhang then shouted: “If you don't renounce your faith, we will send you to the desert prison and let those murderers kill you, then they'll feed your body to wild beasts.”

In the afternoon, Ji returned. He was drunk. He tried to force me to say slanderous words about Falun Gong but I refused. He then hit me in the chest and stuffed my mouth with lit cigarettes. As a result, the inside of my mouth was burned and covered with many blisters.

After several consecutive days of being tortured and interrogated this way, I was unable to stand, eat or drink. I became so thin that they could no longer put handcuffs on my wrists.

On July 17th, in the morning, Zhang ordered two men to put me on the tiger bench¹, and then they began to brutally hit me in the face. Ma and Ji suddenly began trampling on my leg shackles and I fainted from the excruciating pain. When I regained consciousness, my head felt like it was going to explode in pain, my chest was burning, my whole body was in spasms and I kept vomiting. Finally I lost consciousness.

In the subsequent days, my blood pressure was very high and I often fainted from spasms. I often had internal bleeding in my abdomen, too. I was unable to take care of myself. The police extended my detention by one year and four months, which was against the law.

In August 2002, the Yi County Court sentenced me to eight years imprisonment. I appealed to the Baoding City Intermediate Court. On November 4th, 2004, the Baoding City Intermediate Court maintained the same judgment.

On October 16th, 2003, I was taken to Hebei Province Taixing Prison. Chief guard Ma Huiran and guard Du Lijing locked me in a sealed room. They instructed practitioners who had renounced their faith to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me. I was watched by four prison convicts. I was not spared even when going to the toilet. In the morning, I was forced to watch shows slandering Falun Gong. At night, I was allowed to sleep increasingly later. I went on a hunger strike to protest against the persecution. They then force-fed me using a thick tube. Several convicts held me to the ground and forced me to put my thumb imprint on documents stating that I had given up practising Falun Gong. Later on, I wrote two solemn declarations to void these statements. I put one copy in the chief guard's letter box and handed the other copy to guard Ma Huiran.

Guards ordered convicts to drag me to the chief guard's office, where they viciously beat me. Using ropes, they tied me to a bed covered with tiny nails pointing upwards, and shackled my hands and legs. I was watched by convicts 24 hours a day.

In September 2004, I was transferred to the No. 8 Ward in Hebei Province Second Prison. My blood pressure reading was over 200 and I fell onto the stone floor from dizziness, fracturing my right cheekbone. Even now there is still a slight indentation on the right side of my face from the fracture. My right eyeball is also slightly tilted as a result of the fall.

On July 20th, 2005, I was sent to Shijiazhuang Women's Prison in Hebei Province. I was beaten many times by prison convicts. Because I refused to do forced labour, my family was not allowed to visit me. I was locked up in solitary confinement three times. Prison guards even secretly laced my drink with psychiatric drugs. After taking a drink, I was in a daze and had difficulty walking.

On June 13th, 2010, less than a year after my release, I was arrested again by officers from Yi County's Domestic Security Division and police station: Zhai Po, Jing Mingzhong and others. I was sent for a year in Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp.

In the forced labour camp my blood pressure went up to 240. No. 3 Division head Niu Li and Wang Xinshu forced me to perform hard labour and write a statement renouncing my faith. On December 3rd, 2010, I was critically ill with high blood pressure and thus was allowed to go on medical parole.

My family has also suffered a lot during these eight and a half years due to my imprisonment. After I was arrested, my mother-in-law, who is in her 60s, became bedridden. My father-in-law had a stroke and became paralysed on one side of his body. My husband also had a stroke in 2004 as a result of the frequent harassment and pressure from home raids and threats from police. My daughter finished her postgraduate studies, only to be told by the police that she could not hold a government position because her mother was a Falun Gong practitioner.

Note

1. "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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/9/16/246779.html