Former Kindergarten Teacher Ms. Wei Xingzhi Has Prison Term Extended by a Year

Name: Wei Xingzhi
Gender: Female
Age: 54
Address: Shuiguohu District, Wuchang, Wuhan City, Hubei Province.
Occupation: Former kindergarten teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 23rd, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wuhan Women's Prison
City: Wuhan
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, fired from job, home ransacked, detention, solitary confinement, hung up, beatings, torture, sleep deprivation

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wei Xingzhi from the Wuchang District in Wuhan City was arrested in September 2009 and sentenced to two years in prison by the Wuchang District Court. She should have been released on September 23rd, but the Wuhan City Women's Prison officials extended her term by a year, using the excuse that she refused to be “reformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong].

Ms. Wei was subjected to severe physical abuse and mistreatment during her two years of detention. Guard Jiang Chun in the New Arrivals Team placed Ms. Wei in solitary confinement, where she was hung up with handcuffs on a metal door. She was later transferred to Ward No. 5, where guards Yan Lifeng, Zhang Shuyu, and Yi Fei and criminal inmates assigned to monitor her physically abused and mistreated her and placed her in solitary confinement. While detained in prison, Ms. Wei was abused and mistreated for two years.

When Ms. Wei's term expired, the Hubei Province Prison Management Bureau and the Wuhan City Women's Prison authorities refused to release her and extended her term by a year because she has not renounced Falun Gong.

Ms. Wei is currently in a solitary confinement cell near the toilet on the second floor of the production zone in Ward No. 5. She is still being abused and tortured.

Ms. Wei was a teacher at the No. 2 Kindergarten of the Provincial Governmental Affiliations of Hubei Province. Because she practises Falun Gong, she was sentenced to forced labour, subjected to brainwashing, and dismissed from her job. Her salary has been suspended for eight years. In 2001, Ms. Wei went to Beijing to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong and was held in the Fangshan Detention Centre, where she held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. In early June 2003, she was arrested at work and taken to the Wuhan City No. 1 Detention Centre. Her home was ransacked, and she was later taken to Hewan Forced Labour Camp. On September 3rd, 2003, she was transferred to Shayang Forced Labour Camp, where she was held for a year. She was emaciated when she was released.

On September 23rd, 2009, at about 9:30 p.m., officers from the Wuhan City Police Department, the Wuhan City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), and the Shuiguohu Police Station broke into Ms. Wei's home and ransacked it. She was taken to the Wuhan City No. 1 Detention Centre. She was transferred to the Wuhan Women's Prison in August 2010. Her mother, in her 80s, has been left alone at home with no one to take care of her.

Political head of Wuhan Women's Prison Jiang Chun first put Ms. Wei in Ward No. 4, where she was hung up, handcuffed with her arms behind her back, and forced to stand still facing the wall. They also beat her; gagged her with used, foul smelling socks; and deprived her of sleep for more than 20 consecutive nights. She was tortured until she was emaciated, unable to walk, and on the verge of death. She was then transferred to the Ward No. 5.

Political heads Yan Lifeng, Yi Fei, and others instigated criminal inmates to abuse and mistreat Ms. Wei. They punched her in her temple and breasts, kicked her, struck her chest and genital area with their elbows, and hit her lower abdomen, and lower back with their knees. Criminal inmate Yan Hezhen applied essential oils and tiger balm to her eyes, hit her eyeballs with her fingers, and slapped her face. Ms. Wei is currently in a solitary cell.

Related articles:

“Kindergarten Teacher Ms. Wei Xingzhi Detained in Wuhan Women's Prison” (http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/11/21/121538.html)

“Ms. Wei Xingzhi from Wuhan City, Hubei Province Mistreated for Her Belief” (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2009/4/8/106312.html)

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/11/28/249926.html