(Minghui.org) Ms. Gao Qinmei is a Falun Gong practitioner from Shanghai’s Changning District. Since the Communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Gao has been constantly harassed, arrested, detained, and illegally sentenced. In and out of jail several times, she has spent eight years in detention.
The last time was October 22, 2012, when Changning District police arrested her. After being sentenced to four years in the Changning District Court in July 2013, she was sent to Shanghai Women’s Prison in September 2013.
Ms. Gao’s older sister applied to visit her several times but was approved only once, and only for eight minutes. Following that brief visit, all subsequent requests to visit her sister were denied.
Ms. Gao Qinmei wrote a letter to her two older sisters in late September 2015, asking them to visit her in prison. When they were finally able to see her, her sisters were shocked at her appearance. She was very thin and pale, and talked and moved slowly, like an old woman. The sisters tried to get her released on a medical parole, but their request was denied.
After returning home, the sisters wrote a letter to the authorities to complain about Shanghai Women’s Prison’s treatment of Ms. Gao. They also reiterated their request for a medical parole, but their letter did not convince the prison authorities.
One of the guards told Ms. Gao’s daughter, “We are denying your mother a medical parole because of the letter your aunts wrote.”
At this time, her family has not heard anything about Ms. Gao for five months. They are very worried about her.
