(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old woman in Benxi City, Liaoning Province, was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on August 22, 2025, to serve a three-year term for her faith in Falun Gong.
This is the third prison term that Ms. Zhao Huijun has been given since the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999.
Ms. Zhao was arrested on April 11, 2024 for talking to people about Falun Gong on the street. She appeared in the Xihu District Court on October 17, 2024 and was sentenced to three years with a 4,000-yuan fine on December 10.
On January 19, 2025, Ms. Zhao’s family defender filed an appeal with the Benxi City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict on May 7. When Ms. Zhao’s family visited her at the Benxi City Detention Center on June 6, a guard told them that this would be the only meeting with her before her prison transfer.
Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Zhao was previously twice sentenced by the Xihu District Court, including a six-year term (April 13, 2007 – April 12, 2013) and a three-year term (July 31, 2014 – July 30, 2017). She suffered various forms of torture in prison, including freezing, beatings, and force-feeding, and almost died.
Ms. Zhao was first arrested at 12:10 a.m. on April 13, 2007. The police created a big hole in her front door and broke in. All her valuables, computers, printers, Falun Gong-related materials, and even her daughter’s piggy bank, were confiscated.
At the Xihu District Police Department, the police smacked her head with bottles filled with water and verbally abused her. Ms. Zhao refused to comply with the interrogation and was taken to the Benxi City Detention Center. Guard Zhang Guoyun shackled her to a wall fixture for two weeks.
Ms. Zhao was later sentenced to six years and admitted to the 9th Division of Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on December 28, 2007. Two days later, Li Heqiao, the division head, ordered inmates Yang Dongmei and Shen Jingchao to torture her. They forced her to stand for long hours and didn’t allow her to sleep. They also whipped her with a leather belt, hit her head against the wall, and stomped on her.
On January 19, 2008, inmate Jiang Ping tied Ms. Zhao up and then poured ice cold water over her. She had blood in her stool and experienced painful urination after that ordeal. Her hands were swollen and she was unable to hold things. Her feet festered and she lost feeling in her toes. She had muscle atrophy in her left calf and nerve damage in her feet. She also lost her memory for nearly seven months.
In the spring of 2011, Ms. Zhao was assigned to a clothes-making team. She was given a heavy workload and very little time for meals or to use the restroom.
Inmate Chu Xiuying hit Ms. Zhao on her head from behind after work on February 8, 2012. Guard Liu Xiujuan turned a blind eye to it and accused Ms. Zhao of causing trouble.
Ms. Zhao held a hunger strike to protest and was hospitalized on the ninth day. She was handcuffed in bed and given nine bottles of IV drips each day. On the fourth day, she began to have urinary incontinence. In the evening, she overheard nurse Wu Donghong talking to an inmate, “Didn’t she want to die? I can make her wish come true. I will add 500 to 1,000 ml of water to her IV drips every day. She will have excessive fluid in her body and her organs will all start to fail in one week.”
Two weeks later, the guards began to force-feed Ms. Zhao. When she was on the verge of death, they took her to an external hospital. Her hemoglobin was less than 4g/dl (normal level is 11.0 – 15.0g/dl). She also had extremely low level of blood sugar and potassium. The nurse was unable to locate her vein and had to draw blood from an artery.
When Ms. Zhao was released on April 12, 2013, she weighed less than 35 kg (77 lbs). Her hair had turned gray. Her face was pale and wrinkled. Her reactions were slow. By practicing Falun Gong, she recovered in three months, only to be arrested again on July 31, 2014 and sentenced to another three years.
After Ms. Zhao was released on July 30, 2017 after serving the second term, the Benxi City Social Security Bureau suspended her pension and ordered her to return the funds she had received during her prison term. She refused to comply.
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