Ms. Jiang Pingtian from Qidong County, Hunan Province Incarcerated for Eight and a Half Years, Her Family Persecuted As Well

Name: Jiang Pingtian
Gender: Female
Age: 61
Address: Guanjiazui Town, Qidong County, Hunan Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2001
Most Recent Place of Detention: Changsha Women's Prison in Hunan Province
City: Changsha
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Beatings, hanging up, imprisonment, torture, home ransacking, interrogation, detention

Prior to practising Falun Gong, Ms. Jiang Pingtian suffered from various illnesses and had sought medical treatment everywhere, but there was no help for her. When she began practising Falun Gong in 1998, all of her diseases disappeared, and she became increasingly healthy. She was deeply grateful to Falun Gong for saving her life and was very diligent in studying the Falun Gong teachings and practising the exercises.

After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Ms. Jiang was arrested and detained numerous times for standing firm in her belief and explaining the facts of Falun Gong to the public. Just a few months after her last arrest in late 2001, Qidong County Court sentenced her to eight years of incarceration. When she finished serving her sentence, the prison refused to release her on time and extended her term by six months.

While holding her in custody, the local police repeatedly interrogated her with torture in an attempt to extract “confessions” from her. They tied her hands and hung her up by a rope to the top of a metal gate for nine days; several policemen took turns beating and kicking her.

There were bruises on her face, hands, and the rest of her body. It was the middle of November. The weather was cold, windy and rainy; yet Ms. Jiang had only thin clothes to wear. Sometimes when the policemen removed the rope, she could only sit or lie on the cold concrete floor. Her bruised body shivered. Within a short time, the police would again try to extract a confession from her. They beat her unconscious several times. She became emaciated. The handcuffs could no longer restrain her thin hands. The police had to find a pair of handcuffs for juveniles to handcuff her.

When she was finally released in November 2010, she learned from her family that they had been constantly harassed while she was incarcerated. The most severe incident happened one night in 2007, when Guanjiazui Town Political and Legal Committee Deputy Secretary Chen Peng and Guanjiazui Town Police Station Deputy Head Zhang Fan led a group of people to break in and ransack her home. As if that was not enough, the same gang came back the next morning to search the house again.

When Ms. Jiang’s husband, Mr. Guang Xingzhong, returned home to see everything in disarray, he rushed to the village head’s home to report what had happened. Unfortunately, he passed out the moment he got there, and the village head had to dispatch people to escort him to the hospital. Several days later when Mr. Guan returned to get money to pay for his medical care, he was shocked to discover that the 1,000 yuan¹ his out-of-town son had just wired him was gone. When he went to Guanjiazui Town Police Station to inquire about the missing money, the perpetrators involved in the search of his home simply denied any knowledge of the money. With the support of fellow villagers, Mr. Guan decided to sue the police. Only then did they acknowledge that they took the money. To pacify Mr. Guan, they returned it and also gave him 800 yuan as compensation for his emotional suffering.

The local police also extended the persecution to Ms. Jiang's family members. Her husband, Mr. Guan, was once detained and interrogated for three days in the Baidi City Police Station. Her son working out of town was lured back to his hometown and brutally beaten. Her daughter decided to live away from home to avoid further harassment. Her son-in-law, Luo Ling, was sentenced to five years incarceration for helping her make materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/11/1/248532.html