KOU Xiaoping, female, 40 years old, was abducted by the Public Security Bureau of Anshan City, Liaoning Province in November 2000, when she was on her way to work.
Because she refused to write a statement of promising not to practice Falun Gong anymore, she was detained illegally for 15 days in the Third jail in Anshan City. After 15 days, another 15 day extension was added. When she was under detention, security personnel from the City Public Security Bureau interrogated her several times and each time, they would torture her.
One day, she was taken away from her cell around 8 a.m. in the morning and wasn’t brought back until 6 p.m. The policemen twisted one of her hands around her head, and the other hand was wrapped around her back and she was hung over there for the whole day, while at the same time, KOU Xiaoping was brutally tortured, leaving bruises everywhere on her body, her two thumbs became numb after that.
In the next day, she could not get up from her bed (some policemen from the Third jail also witnessed the scars on her body). Ten days later, KOU Xiaoping was transferred to the Second Jail. Many other Falun Gong practitioners were also being persecuted here.
KOU Xiaoping was illegally detained in the Second Jail for more than one month, and in February of 2001, she was illegally sentenced to two years in prison. She was then taken to a labor camp. In the camp, she was forced to submit to brainwashing and was not allowed to sleep for more than one month. For more than one year, day in and day out, she was under consistent harassment, until eventually, she was left with severe damages to both her body and mind.
Because KOU Xiaoping refused to abandon her belief in Falun Gong, she was then taken to a very strictly controlled class, and she suffered even more damages to her body and mind, and completely lost her personal freedom there. Even visits to the restroom were under surveillance.
In order to resist the persecution, KOU Xiaoping started to undergo a hunger strike on February 14, 2002. On the sixth day, she was forced to eat foods, and at the seventh day, she became sick and was sent to the Central Hospital. After an exam, the doctors decided to keep her in the hospital, but the labor camp staff forced them to bring KOU Xiaoping back to the camp, claiming there was nothing to worry about, and saying that KOU would recover after she ate some foods.
On February 22, 2002 (the 8th day after the hunger strike), she was taken back to the hospital as her sickness worsened. By this time, it was impossible to rescue her, and KOU Xiaoping died that day.
After the death of KOU Xiaoping, the police department tried to cover up the whole issue. They intimidated KOU’s family members and forced KOU’s husband to sign a document which claimed that Kou died of natural causes, and that the prison had nothing to do with her death. The suffering of Kou’s family were completely ignored by the police.
The police also requested that whenever KOU’s family or friends wanted to see her body, they must first notify the police and get the approval from the police department. In addition, they insisted that the police must be present and that the body must be taken care of by the labor camp. They said that any photography, videotaping or news media report was forbidden, otherwise, KOU’s family would have to bear the consequences.
KOU’s sister demanded to know how the police could claim that they had nothing do with the death and the death itself was of natural cause, when they controlled everything and that they must first approve everything.
ZHANG Zhengyan, an official from the labor camp, rudely responded by saying that the victim’s parents had no rights to speak out.