(Minghui.org) A 63-year-old woman regained her health after she began practicing Falun Dafa in 2012. She was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison on December 6, 2018 for talking to people about the practice of Falun Dafa. After her release on May 25, 2019, she has been harassed constantly by the authorities.

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Beginning the Practice

Ms. Wu Liru, a resident of Changsha City, Hunan Province, suffered eight broken ribs in 1996, which caused unbearable pain at each slight cough. In 2012, when she was 56, she developed rheumatism and was lost the ability to walk normally.

Ms. Wu heard about Falun Dafa by chance and learned about its healing power. She decided to give it a try and started to listen to the Fa teaching lecture audios by founder Master Li in 2012. Soon, her health improved tremendously.

As she continued to listen to the audios over and over for several more times, her illnesses, including the severe rheumatism, gradually disappeared. She was so grateful and enthusiastic about her practice that she wanted to tell everyone that Dafa had given her a second life.

Arrested for Speaking Out

Ms. Wu was recorded by surveillance cameras while posting stickers that read “Falun Dafa is good” near the Provincial Women's Federation building in November 2017. Several officers from the Xianjiahu Police Station and local neighborhood committee ransacked her home and confiscated all her Falun Dafa books and photos without any warrant. She was detained for ten days at Wangcheng Detention Center.

Ms. Wu was arrested again by a plainclothes officer when posting “Falun Dafa is good” at a bus stop on May 25, 2018.

At the Xihu Police Station, two female and four male officers stripped Ms. Wu down to her underwear and conducted a body search. The police also took away her home keys, ransacked her home, and confiscated all her Falun Dafa books and photos.

After six months of detention at the Changsha City No. 1 Detention Center, Ms. Wu appeared in court in November 2018. She was charged with “utilizing a cult to sabotage law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners. The judge sentenced her to one year in prison, with a 3,000-yuan fine.

Tortured in Prison

Ms. Wu was taken to prison in January 2019. She was placed in the high security ward and forced to undergo blood tests and a full body medical exam, possibly related to the regime's forced organ harvesting crimes.

As she refused to read the materials slandering Falun Dafa, the prison guards instigated inmates to beat her, pour cold water over her body, and gag her with a towel for three months. Her body and bed were constantly soaking wet, even on the coldest winter days.

At the same time, she was not allowed to wash or use the toilet, and so she frequently soiled her clothes. To protest the mistreatment, Ms. Wu went on an eight-day hunger strike and was force-fed at the prison hospital, causing her teeth to become loose after her mouth was violently pried open by the guards.

Within a few months, Ms. Wu's body was badly swollen. Her skin and private parts were severely ulcerated, causing her unbearable pain and leaving her unable to walk normally. Yet, the guards continued to force her to read propaganda materials defaming Falun Dafa.

Ms. Wu was released on May 25, 2019. Forty days after she returned home, the local 610 office began harassing her and threatened to return every month if she refused to renounce her faith.