(Minghui.org) A woman from Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, developed diabetes and is very weak and emaciated ten months after she began to serve a four-year term for not renouncing her faith in Falun Gong. Her family is demanding her immediate release.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It has been persecuted by the communist regime since 1999.
The guards at Guangdong Province Women's Prison didn't allow 60-year-old Ms. Su Guiying to take showers or use the restroom when she refused to identify herself as a criminal.
The longest time Ms. Su was denied a shower or change of clothes was nearly 20 days. The guards wrote slanderous sentences against Falun Gong on her clothes and didn't allow her to take it off.
Five inmates took turns monitoring Ms. Su. She wasn't allowed to sleep until 2:30 am and had to get up at 5:40 am. She was forced to stand all day long without a break. When she collapsed after she couldn't stand any longer due to severely swollen feet, the inmates pulled her up and forced her to do physical exercises under the scorching sun.
The guards once forbade her from eating, but then changed their minds and forced her to eat, perhaps fearing that she might protest the torture with a hunger strike.
Ms. Su and another practitioner Ms. Yu Mei were arrested on August 31, 2016, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. They were kept at Mazhang District No.1 Detention Center in Zhanjiang City.
The police submitted their cases twice to Chikan District Procuratorate on December 9, 2016, and April 21, 2017.
Both women stood trial on August 16, 2017, and were sentenced to four years in prison on December 12, 2017.
They appealed the verdict to Zhanjiang City Intermediate Court. The judge upheld the sentences without holding a public hearing. Both women began to serve time at Guangdong Province Women's Prison in May 2018.
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