Ms. Zhao Ye's Life Endangered at Hebei Women's Prison; Current Condition Unknown

Ms. Zhao Ye, a Falun Gong practitioner from Tangshan City, Hebei Province, has been subjected to brutal torture during her long detention at Hebei Province Women's Prison. It was said that the officials from the forced labour camp were not going to release her, but finally relented when it was clear that her life was in danger. Her condition is currently unknown.

Ms. Zhao, 41, worked as designer. In March 2011, she was arrested in a residential area and taken to a forced labour camp to serve a 21-month term. She was originally detained at the Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan and then transferred to the Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp. She was held in the No. 3 Team at the camp, where she was subjected to torture.

It was said that Ms. Zhao refused to do hard labour at the camp. As a result, the labour camp authorities tried to force her. Ms. Zhao tried reason with them from a legal perspective, noting that throwing Falun Gong practitioners into a forced labour camp was illegal in and of itself, and therefore she was fully justified in her refusal to participate in hard labor; refusing was also a way for her to oppose the persecution. In response, the officers forced her to stand for the whole day until the other prisoners finished their work. After that, they didn't let her return to her cell but forced her to sit on a stool. This torture lasted for a whole week. Team leader Lu Yaqin claimed that she would either extend Ms. Zhao's term or torture her. She also ordered others to surround her in order to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] her. However, they were not successful, as Ms. Zhao held firmly to her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Later, the officers forced her to clean up the workshops and did not allow her to bathe for quite some time.

In August 2011, several practitioners being held at the No. 3 Team refused to do hard labour in order to protest their terms being illegally extended. Lu believed that their actions were directly influenced by Ms. Zhao, and thus began escalating the persecution against her from that point on.

On August 15th, Lu started a campaign to "reform" Ms. Zhao. Lu and Liu Ziwei took turns shocking her with electric batons. The strong currents left her with many bruises and dark spots on her body. Her arms and shoulders became swollen and her right arm was shocked to the point that she suffered nerve damage and could not move her arm. After a while, the pain subsided, but she was still unable to move her arm. Lu tortured Ms. Zhao for three days, forcing her to stand in a military position. On August 18th, she forced Ms. Lu to sit on a small stool for hours on end. Later, she made her sit in the Perm workshop, which had a very strong odor. In September, she was forced to sit in the knitting workshop. Because she had been sitting so long, Ms. Zhao fell off the stool onto the ground several times. After sitting all day, she was forced to sleep on the ground and was unable to sleep restfully.

Because of the nerve damage to Ms. Zhao's right arm, the muscles in her right hand atrophied, leaving her disabled. When she ate, washed her face, brushed her teeth, or washed her clothes, she could only use her left hand. As soon as she started using her right hand, it began to shake. Ms. Zhao went to the team leader several times to request a medical check-up, but the prison doctor, a man in his 40s with the last name of Ma, replied that she didn't need to go for a check-up. His reasoning was that as long as her bone was not fractured, she should be okay. Ma treats people with indifference and he himself has also participated in the brutal forced-feeding of Falun Gong practitioners many times.

At one point, team leaders Wang Xin and Shi Jiangxia threatened Ms. Zhao that if she didn't sing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) songs, she could not go back to her room to sleep and would have to sleep out in the hallway. So Ms. Zhao ended up sleeping on the ground in the hall for four months, where it was very difficult to get any rest.

Ms. Zhao's health deteriorated markedly. At the beginning, she coughed up sputum occasionally. Later, as soon as she began to talk she would start coughing. She began to lose her hearing during the winter of 2011. At first, she only had trouble hearing with one ear, but later she began losing hearing in both ears. When people spoke to her, they had to shout in order for her to hear. In early 2012, Ms. Zhao's health deteriorated even more. She could take very little food, had diarrhoea, her sputum was darkly coloured and she walked very slowly with an unsteady gait. Gradually, she lost her lucidity and began suffering from visual hallucinations. For example, one time she couldn't recognize her handbag and another time she said that she saw her father waiting outside to take her home. But team leader Wang Xin accused her of feigning her mental instability.

One time in the cafeteria, Ms. Zhao had diarrhea, so she asked team leader Wang Weiwei for permission to use the toilet. Wang refused her request and pulled her back to her seat. Ms. Zhao ended up soiling her pants. When a kindhearted person bought her a boiled egg, she only had a bite, then vomited all of it.

Ms. Zhao was not getting adequate nutrition and could not keep anything down. She fainted a few times and appeared to be suffering from dehydration. One time she fainted in the washroom. Later, she couldn't walk, and asked someone to carry her on their back so she could go to the workshop. On March 1st, 2012, she was transferred to the prison clinic, where she received daily injections. The team leader kept a close eye on her and stopped anyone from visiting her, even other inmates. The medical staff at the clinic couldn't heal her illnesses, so they had to transfer her to a hospital. Later it was said that Ms. Zhao was released but no further information is known.

Ms. Zhao was a beautiful woman before her imprisonment. In the workshop, she could do things very fast. She didn't talk much, and often helped others. For instance, even when her right arm became disabled, she still helped others carry water barrels and clean up. However, within a year, she was tortured to the point that she became emaciated. Ms. Zhao is about 5'4", yet the last report on her condition noted that she weighed only about 85 lbs. Her face is sunken, her complexion is sallow and her lips have become a dark purple color. She has lost mental capacity and she is severely disabled physically.

Lu Yaqin, the officer from the No. 3 Team is mainly responsible for persecuting Ms. Zhao. Lu has been persecuting Falun Gong practitioners using all means available and as a result has received commendations and bonuses from the prison authorities.