(Minghui.org) A pregnant woman was arrested while walking on the street and tortured in custody. Her baby died shortly after birth. Only a month later, the woman was arrested again and sentenced to three years. Her husband divorced her and she was fired by her workplace.

Ms. Jin Ling’s tragedy is only one of the countless heartbreaking, horrific persecution cases against Falun Gong practitioners, after the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute their faith in 1999. For upholding their faith, practitioners in China are subjected to arbitrary arrest, harassment, detention, and imprisonment. Some were tortured to death and some were even killed for their organs. 

Ms. Jin, a Hefei City, Anhui Province resident, used to work at a meter factory. She took up Falun Gong in 1997 and became more considerate of others. She was honest in handling her work-related business activities and always returned any extra money the factory’s business partner paid them, something uncommon given the prevalent corruption in society today.

With the onset of the persecution in July 1999, Ms. Jin appealed to the local government in November 1999, but to no avail. She then went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, but was arrested and held in a detention facility. After she was released, the police often harassed her and her family, making it impossible for them to live a normal life. 

Ms. Jin was arrested again in June 2002, but she escaped. 

While buying things on the street one day in August 2003, she was noticed by a plainclothes police officer and arrested on the spot, regardless of the fact that she was about five months pregnant. Many of the onlookers condemned the police for the violent arrest.

At the local police station, Ms. Jin was shackled to a chair for 15 hours. Her legs became severely swollen and she had difficulty walking afterward. Her family was forced to pay 20,000 yuan in exchange for her release. The torture affected the health of her baby, who died from hydrocephalus (buildup of fluid in the brain) shortly after birth.

Only a month after Ms. Jin gave birth, she was arrested again on the evening of March 2, 2004, after the authorities deceived her into opening her door by claiming they were there to check on her water meter. She was taken to the Hefei City No. 2 Detention Center at around 1 a.m. The police ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books, cellphone, her meditation pad and some cash. 

As soon as she was taken to the detention center, Ms. Jin held a hunger strike for a week to protest the persecution. The guards ordered inmates to tie her up in a spread-eagle position on a bed and force-feed her. Her nose was broken and her face was swollen. The inmates also used the end of a toothbrush to jab the soles of her feet, causing her feet to become swollen and painful. The detention center doctor also threatened to pry open her mouth with a pair of pliers.

Torture illustration: tied up in a spread-eagle position

During her seven-month detention, Ms. Jin was forced to do unpaid labor, mostly making decorative lights. 

She was sentenced to three years by the Shushan District Court on October 10, 2004 and taken to the Suzhou City Women’s Prison in November. The guards forcibly cut her hair, forced her to wear the prison uniform and to perform unpaid labor.

Unable to bear the persecution, Ms. Jin's husband divorced her and she was also fired by her workplace.