(Minghui.org) A physician serving time for her faith in Falun Gong fell into a coma on July 19, 2020, due to severe electrolyte imbalance. Her family requested that she be released on medical parole and is awaiting the prison’s decision.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Lin Jieping, 62, a doctor practicing in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province, was arrested on July 3, 2017, while talking to people about Falun Gong. It’s reported that the police had monitored her for days before arresting her. Her home was ransacked in the afternoon.
Ms. Lin began to experience severe abnormal symptoms after more than two months of detention. She kept coughing and had diarrhea for more than a month. She also vomited, felt dizzy, and suffered from incontinence from time to time. Despite strong requests from her family, the detention center guards refused to release her.
Ms. Li appeared in court on March 1, 2018, and was sentenced to 4.5 years in May 2018. She was transferred to the Guangdong Province Women’s Prison on August 13, 2018.
Ms. Lin suffered a bone fracture in her legs in the prison and was operated on in the hospital. The prison authorities claimed she took a fall and broke her leg.
The prison informed Ms. Lin’s family in April 2020 that she suffered another bone fracture and had an operation. While the guards said it was caused by her “excessive walking,” her family suspected whether that was an excuse to cover up the torture she suffered in custody, as all Falun Gong practitioners are under strict restriction in the prison.
Past Persecution
Ms. Lin took up Falun Gong in 1996 and credits the practice for improving her health. The practice also enabled her to let go of her grudge against her ex-husband for failing to pay child support for their children, who she cared for as a single mother.
Being a family doctor in the village, she was known for being considerate of her patients and always trying to reduce their medical costs.
After the communist regime ordered the persecution in 1999, Ms. Lin went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice her faith. She was arrested and fined 6,000 yuan. The police suspended her household registration in the city and forced her to move to the countryside with her children.
She was arrested on June 25, 2000 for doing Falun Gong exercises in public and later sentenced to four years in Guangdong Women’s Prison, where she was forced to do intensive unpaid labor for long hours each day.
Because she refused to read books that smeared Falun Gong, the guards ordered her to sit facing the wall for more than 20 days. The guards cuffed her hands from the back to a metal door when she refused to comply.
The guards forced her to sit and stand facing the wall again in 2003 when she refused to renounce her faith. Her feet became severely swollen and skin festered.
She was released on June 24, 2004.
