(Minghui.org) Ms. Liang Cuirong, 74, is a practitioner of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), a meditation practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison and transferred to Heilongjiang Women’s Prison on August 22, 2016.
Ms. Liang is often abused by prison guards and other inmates for doing Falun Gong exercises. One time when she sat with her legs crossed for meditation, two inmates picked her up and then dropped her hard on the ground. Her legs fractured as a result. She was not able to walk for a long time.
Ms. Liang was arrested from her home on April 14, 2016. Police confiscated her Falun Gong books, household registration, identification card and 3,000 yuan of cash. She was taken to a police station and interrogated. She was later detained at Yichun Detention Center where she showed symptoms of a stroke due to ill-treatments. She could not walk without other people holding her. Her hands shook badly, and she could not take care of herself.
During her trial on August 22, 2016, Ms. Liang’s lawyer defended her innocence and argued that there is no law forbidding people from practicing Falun Gong in China, thus, whatever Falun Gong materials Ms. Liang had were her lawful possessions, not evidence of a crime. However, the court still convicted Ms. Liang and sentenced her to 7.5 years to prison and a 10,000 yuan fine. Ms. Liang lost her appeal and was sent to Heilongjiang Women’s Prison.
Heilongjiang Women’s Prison is one of the prisons in China that imprison the most Falun Gong practitioners and subject them to the most brutal tortures. There are over a thousand Falun Gong practitioners detained there at the time of the writing.
According to available statistics, at least 31 Falun Gong practitioners have lost their lives after being brutally tortured at Heilongjiang Women’s Prison, and 90% of detained practitioners have injuries from torture and ill-treatment and most of them suffer from sequelae.
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Su Yunxia was sentenced to five years and was scheduled to be released on September 6, 2021. She died two days before the release date at the age of 67. Another practitioner Ms. Li Guiyue was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2015. She was beaten every day while in prison. When she was released in May 2020, she was emaciated and almost unrecognizable. She died on August 6, 2021, at the age of 52.
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Category: Torture of Women
