A 65-year-old woman said she was sentenced to five years in a Chinese prison, where she suffered “inhumane torture,” for following a type of meditation practiced by millions in China.
Sun Zhuoying said she was sentenced to five years for hanging a banner that spoke out about the Chinese regime’s unlawful persecution of practitioners of Falun Gong, a type of traditional Chinese meditation practice, in May 2011, according to a report published Sunday on Falun Gong information website Minghui.org.
In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched its suppression of Falun Gong, traditionally known as Falun Dafa. Practitioners are routinely subjected to arbitrary arrest, harassment, loss of employment, torture, and death at the hands of CCP officials. Several months ago, a report said Falun Gong adherents are being killed for body parts in China’s popular organ transplant industry. As many as 1.5 million organ transplants may have taken place in China since 2000, which were mostly “harvested” from Falun Gong practitioners, but include other prisoners of conscience, the report said.
Sun described her experiences in a lengthy account, saying she was forced to stand 18 hours each day, her head was beaten “with heavy objects” until she passed out, and she was also subjected to unusual torture methods including being completely wrapped up with sealing tape by other prisoners at the behest of prison guards.
“They forced me to sleep on a wooden board and wrapped me in sealing tape. They bound my hands, feet and body together before wrapping up my feet and legs separately. I couldn’t move even a little,” she said.
She also said she was coerced by prison officials to write a false statement admitting her “crime.” After she wrote a declaration to nullify the statement, Sun was placed in solitary confinement.
“They tortured me so severely that I was often in critical condition. They took me to Shanghai Prison Hospital every couple of months. I once lost consciousness at the hospital from heavy bleeding in my stomach,” Sun added, according to the report.
She described other forms of torture, which was often psychological in nature.
“I was also forced to sit in bed until midnight every day before being allowed to sleep. When my watchers noticed me sleepy, they beat me violently and poured cold water on my neck,” she added. “In the middle of a cold winter they removed my blanket every fifteen minutes at night.”
Sun said she returned home in May 2016.
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have said the Chinese regime has been carrying out mass arbitrary detentions, show trials, and other human rights abuses resulting from the persecution.
