Ms. Niu Huimin Seriously Ill As a Result of Persecution in Shijiazhuang Women's Forced Labour Camp

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Niu Huimin was arrested at her home in Dingxing County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, on June 12th, 2010. She is currently in Shijiazhuang Women's Forced Labour Camp and is seriously ill as a result of persecution. Her husband's request for medical parole for her was denied. Her husband was previously forced to serve about six years of imprisonment for publicising how his wife was abused and tortured in 2002.

Ms. Niu is in Team One at the labour camp. Because she suffers from a heart problem, there is an insufficient supply of blood to her brain. As a result of the severe beatings by local police officers, her ankles were permanently injured. Ms. Niu is unable to take care of herself and she even has to be supported to use the toilet. She vomits every day and needs oxygen when her condition worsens. Despite her obviously fragile health, she has been detained in the camp for more than two months.

When Ms. Niu was arrested at home the afternoon of June 12th, her husband was out of town working part time. He learned about her arrest three days later. He immediately returned home and went to 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) head Shang Shijiu, but was told that they knew nothing about the arrest until afterwards, when they were given a list of names of 12 people who had been arrested. Ms. Niu's husband went to the Domestic Security Division, where officers told him that they had not learned about it, either. As of today, no legal procedures have been followed in regards to Ms. Niu's detention in the forced labour camp.

Upon learning about Ms. Niu's critical condition, her husband applied to the police department for medical parole, but the officers told him that they were not responsible for Ms. Niu once she had been sent to the forced labour camp. Her husband then went to the labour camp and was told that Ms. Niu's conditions did not meet the criteria for medical parole. Her husband went to the labour camp five times but was not allowed to see her. Ms. Niu's son, who studies in a university in Shijiazhuang, has made phone calls nearly everyday to the labour camp to ask to visit to his mother. He was told, "We will inform you when you're allowed to see her." Ms. Niu's family and friends are very worried about her worsening condition.

Ms. Niu Huimin was employed at the Dingxing County Cotton and Hemp Company. After the company went bankrupt, she made shoe pads to make a living and to pay for her daughter and son's education. She was held in the county brainwashing centre between the end of 2001 and the spring of 2002. At that time, as a result of the persecution, she was in critical condition and officials released her, afraid of being held responsible for her death. She recovered her health in the summer of 2002. However, her husband was arrested for publishing a written statement describing the persecution Ms. Niu was subjected to at the brainwashing centre. He was subsequently sentenced to six to seven years in prison and was released in 2009.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/10/11/230816.html