(Minghui.org) Ms. Feng Xiulan, 66, was arrested on July 4, 2016, because she practices Falun Gong, a traditional mind and body cultivation practice persecuted in China since 1999. She was sentenced to a year and four months based on trumped-up charges and incarcerated in Qinhuangdao Detention Center.

Now out of prison, Ms. Feng's ordeal is not over. After her release on November 22, 2017, the authorities continued to harass her. On March 13, 2018 a group of local officials broke into and ransacked her home while she was away. To avoid future arrest and persecution, Ms. Feng has to live away from home.

The following is Ms. Feng's account of the arrest and torture she has suffered.

The police in Qinhuangdao City arrested Ms. Chang Xiuli on July 4, 2016. Her daughter wanted several of us to go with her to see her mother in the Funing District Detention Center. The director of the detention center demanded a letter from the local police station before he’d allow a visit.

So we drove to the police station for the letter, only to be rejected. Ms. Chang’s sister began to argue with the police and the police dragged her inside the station. We heard loud screaming and Ms. Chang’s daughter tried to videotape the police misconduct from the window. The police grabbed her and the other two relatives and dragged them in as well.

After the police learned that I was also a Falun Gong practitioner, they brought me into the police station. An hour later we were all handcuffed and transferred to an interrogation facility of the Funing Police Department. We were separated and Chen Yingli from the Domestic Security interrogated me for an afternoon.

After dark, the police took our photos and fingerprints, measured our height, and took us to a hospital for physical examinations. I was locked in the Funing Detention Center for nine days, during which time Chen and the local police ransacked my home without a search warrant and confiscated many of my belongings. After that the police wanted me to sign a fabricated deposition and I tore it up.

The police then transferred me to Qinhuangdao Detention Center. When I refused to let them photograph me, they forcibly lifted my head up by pulling my hair. They tried to force me to memorize the rules of the detention center and I refused to comply.

The guards slapped my face and sprayed me with a hot pepper liquid. They ordered two inmates to watch me around the clock. They frequently screamed at me.

We were given little food in the detention center and it tasted awful and was unsanitary. It was mostly steamed buns with pickles or some boiled vegetable. There was barely any meat. The authorities then ordered food from outside and charged us much more than the normal price. Everyone had no choice but to pay for the food because we were constantly hungry.

All detainees were forced to make cardboard boxes used for packaging cakes. Sometimes each person had to make thousands of boxes a day and afterward we couldn’t even straighten our backs. Still, we were often verbally abused and beaten.

On August 5, 2016, I was officially arrested by the Funing Police Department. During my trial, Chen from the Domestic Security Division and the local police perjured themselves and had the court believe that I had a criminal record and had served three years in a forced labor camp. The judge, under pressure from higher authorities, didn’t call any witnesses or present any evidence. He gave me a year and four months for crimes I didn’t commit.

During the 16 months in the Qinhuangdao 1st Detention Center, I wasn’t allowed to do the Falun Gong exercises. With all the mistreatment, my health deteriorated.

I tried to do the exercises one day and the guards put handcuffs and shackles on me. They chained me to the bed and would not release me for any reason. If I had to relieve myself, I had to beg other detainees to bring me a bucket. One time I begged them but the guards hinted that they should not help me. I had no choice but to wet my pants.

I went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse. Several guards held me down and one stood on top of me, a 66-year-old woman, while a doctor inserted a tube through my nostril and force-fed me food and drugs. I was force-fed five times in 12 days. They removed my handcuffs and shackles after that.

Other detainees were ordered not to talk to me or they would be punished. I was monitored around the clock and not allowed to talk to anyone.

After 16 months of torture and abuse in Qinhuangdao Detention Center, I went from being perfectly healthy to suffering from hypertension and heart problems.

Related report:Ms. Feng Sulan Facing Prosecution for Asking for the Release of a Practitioner