(Minghui.org) A Changchun City, Jilin Province, woman died from torture about a year and a half ago while serving time for practicing Falun Gong. Jilin Province Women’s Prison recently notified Ms. Fu Guihua’s family of its intention to cremate her body, which has been kept in a funeral home and not accessible to her family since her death.
Wang Hongmei, the new director of the prison administrative office, and two prison guards visited Ms. Fu’s family on November 22, 2022. They handed them a notice, which stated that “Criminal Fu Guihua died in the First Hospital of Jilin University at 9:18 p.m. on July 25, 2021. It has been determined that she died of a natural cause, gastrointestinal bleeding. Her body will now be handled in accordance with prison procedures.”
Ms. Fu’s family later called Wang and asked her about the torture that Ms. Fu suffered at the hands of the inmates, including sleep deprivation, being denied drinking water, and long hours of sitting on a small stool until her buttocks festered. “The inmates were sentenced because they violated the law. While they were supposed to reflect on their wrongdoing in prison, you instigated them to commit more crimes against good people!” the family said to Wang.
Wang denied that Ms. Fu was tortured in prison and insisted that she died from gastrointestinal bleeding. “I will bring you the hospital diagnosis.”
“Why don’t you show us the surveillance video of her during the last 15 days before she died?” the family asked.
Wang did not respond.
Tortured to Death in Prison
Ms. Fu Guihua
Ms. Fu, her daughter Ms. Yu Jianli, and several other family members were arrested during a police sweep on August 15, 2019, for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Ms. Fu was later sentenced to 7.5 years and Ms. Yu to 7 years. They were taken to Jilin Province Women’s Prison on May 27, 2021.
The mother and daughter were first held in quarantine on the first floor for two weeks. During that period, Ms. Fu was still very healthy and she constantly reminded Ms. Yu not to hold a grudge against the perpetrators.
Later, Qian Wei, the head of the 8th ward, transferred Ms. Fu to the third floor, while Ms. Yu remained on the first floor. When Ms. Fu still refused to give up Falun Gong after spending 43 days in cell 310, Qian transferred her to the next room, 311, for more intensified persecution.
According to an insider, inmate Guo Lihua in cell 310 forced Ms. Fu to sit on a six-inch-tall stool with an uneven surface every day for over 12 hours. She put a piece of paper between Ms. Fu’s legs and would verbally abuse her if the paper fell. Ms. Fu’s buttocks began to bleed and fester. The back of her pants was covered with stains.
Guo also forbade Ms. Fu from drinking water during the hot summer. Ms. Fu was so thirsty that it was difficult for her to eat. Only then would Guo give her a small sip of water. Some practitioners were so thirsty that they rushed out of the cell in the middle of the night and drank the water used for cleaning.
After Ms. Fu was transferred to room 311, inmate Lyu Xinmiao deprived her of sleep and continued to bar her from drinking water. Ms. Fu passed away in three days. She was 55.
At 1 a.m. on July 25, 2021, the day Ms. Fu died, inmate Ji Kexin (a 16-year-old convicted murderer) bragged to another inmate at the end of her shift when she was monitoring Ms. Fu that she didn’t allow her to close her eyes for an hour and a half.
By 3 a.m., Ms. Fu was carried out of the cell and she died later that evening. It’s unclear what Qian and inmate Lyu did to her from 1 to 3 a.m.
Qian forced every inmate in cell 310 to write a false testimony that “Ms. Fu died of a medical condition, which she kept to herself without telling the guards.” Some of them were forced to sign up to six copies of the false documents.
When Ms. Fu’s family called Gao Yang, the deputy head of the 8th ward, the day before she died, Gao still claimed that she was doing fine, without mentioning a word about being tortured.
When Ms. Fu was imprisoned, the prison refused to allow her family to visit her. After she died, the authorities forbade her family from seeing her body, even after it was transferred to the Chaoyanggou Funeral Home.
The prison also refused to provide reports of Ms. Fu’s physical exams, medical records, and the surveillance video before her death. Her family hired a lawyer to seek justice, but the lawyer’s local justice bureau was pressured to order him to not take the case. The officials at the prison administration office also refused to meet with the lawyer.
The prison initially claimed that Ms. Fu died of cirrhosis of the liver, with the excuse that Ms. Fu mentioned she had the disease more than twenty years ago before taking up Falun Gong, ignoring the fact that the disease had long disappeared after she started practicing Falun Gong.
Now the prison has changed the cause of her death to gastrointestinal bleeding. With no access to her body, her family could not even order an independent autopsy to investigate the real cause of her death. What they could confirm was that Ms. Fu didn’t die of a natural disease, but torture by the inmates. It’s not clear whether her body has yet been cremated.
Meanwhile, her daughter Ms. Yu, who is still serving time in prison, has been denied all forms of communication with her family since they visited her the last time in January 2022. Her lawyer has not been allowed to visit her either.
Related Reports:
Woman Jailed for Her Faith Denied Contact with Loved Ones
Systematic Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners Jailed at Jilin Province Women’s Prison
Mother Dies in Custody Under Suspicious Circumstances, Daughter Abused in Prison
Jilin Woman Dies Two Months Following Imprisonment, Family Suspects Foul Play
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