(Minghui.org) Following another arrest and brainwashing center detention in 2021, Ms. Huang Yongmei’s hand injuries from a torture session in 2003 relapsed. Unable to afford to hire a caregiver, the 75-year-old woman now lives on her own and struggles to care for herself.

Ms. Huang, of Wuhan City, Hubei Province, has been subjected to repeated persecution after the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of her faith, Falun Gong in 1999. She was arrested multiple times and held at the Etouwan Brainwashing Center five times, where her hands were injured.

Below is an account of Ms. Huang’s persecution over the years.

After a lengthy detention at the Etouwan Brainwashing Center in 2002, Ms. Huang managed to escape. She was arrested again shortly after in a temporary shelter. She was held at the Wuhan City First Detention Center for 40 days and deprived of sleep.

Ms. Huang was arrested again on November 4, 2003 by the community worker and officers from the Hanzhong Street Police Station. During the 11 days she was deprived of sleep at the Etouwan Brainwashing Center, the guards forced her to stand for 5 days and then hung her up for 6 days. In the hanging torture, the guards stretched her hands out and fastened them to the frames of two bunkbeds side by side.

Torture reenactment: hanging up

Ms. Huang fainted several times and soiled her pants. Her hands swelled and were in extreme pain. Instead of stopping the torture, the guard told her, “If you die, we will just throw you into the cremation furnace and tell the outside world that you committed suicide.” When the guards finally put her down, the nerves in her hands had been severely damaged. If the treatment was delayed further, her hands may have had to be amputated.

Ms. Huang resumed practicing Falun Gong after she returned home and gradually recovered.

She was arrested on January 6, 2016 after she was reported for distributing Falun Gong flyers. Officers from the Sanshu Street Police Station took her to the Etouwan Brainwashing Center again for seven days.

She went to visit another practitioner Ms. Zhou Mingli on April 24, 2018, but was arrested by police who were staked out Ms. Zhou’s home. Both women were held at the Hanzhong Police Station overnight and transferred to the Dongxihu District First Lockup the next morning for ten days.

When the ten-day term expired, instead of releasing her, the authorities took Ms. Huang to the Etouwan Brainwashing Center. She was forced to stand every day from 6:30 a.m. until midnight, except for those times she needed to use the restroom. As a result of the torture, her legs became severely swollen. She couldn’t keep food down, and had loose bowels and frequent vomiting.

Only four days after she was released on May 14, 2018, staffers from the residential committee announced that they would hold a nine-day brainwashing session at her home, every day from 9: 30 a.m. to 11: 30 p.m. To avoid the persecution, Ms. Huang left home.

Ms. Huang was seized by two plainclothes officers around 8 a.m. on April 17, 2021 at a bus station near the Wuhan Exhibition Center Plaza. During the day she was held at the Zhongshan Park Exhibition Hall Police Station, the police didn’t give her food or water. They interrogated her, took her photo, measured her height and weight, and collected her blood sample and fingerprints. She was taken to the Etouwan Brainwashing Center the fifth time around 1 a.m.

Ms. Huang was assigned “two teachers” at the brainwashing center. She was forced to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong every day. She was not allowed to close her eyes or lower her head. While passing the corridor, she wasn’t allowed to look out of the window either. The guards also ordered her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong.

Due to the mental torment, Ms. Huang developed some physical condition. She kept shaking involuntarily when the brainwashing center doctor took her blood pressure. She is now in a dire situation after her hand injuries relapsed.

Related Reports:

Wuhan Opens Nine New Brainwashing Centers to Incarcerate Steadfast Falun Gong Practitioners

Wuhan Brainwashing Center Unlawfully Detains and Tortures Falun Gong Practitioners