Ms. Gao Rongrong, 36, was an employee of the finance office of Shenyang City’s Luxun Fine Arts Institute in Liaoning Province. At the beginning of the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Gao was already considered as a key target of the persecution. As a result, her employer fired her.

In July 2003, Ms. Gao was arrested because she practiced Falun Gong and was sent to the Longshan Labor Camp. On March 22, 2004, Ms. Gao refused to slander Falun Gong, so Tang Yubao, the deputy chief of the second brigade in the labor camp, dragged her from the upper level of her bunk bed down to the floor. He then took her by the throat and dragged her to outside. Guards then took Ms. Gao to the management office and cuffed her to a heating pipe. They punched and kicked her, and continuously shocked her with electric batons on her head, face, neck, hands and feet for over half an hour. Later the director of the labor camp, Li Fengshi, came in and said to Ms. Gao, “This is a despotic place; otherwise what’s the use of handcuffs and electric batons here? I don’t believe we cannot handle you, Gao Rongrong.”

The torture seriously impaired Ms. Gao’s health. She suffered from liver pain, stomach pain, vomiting, loss of appetite and intermittent fever. She became deaf in one ear. The chief of the first brigade, Yue Jun, ordered prisoners to humiliate Ms. Gao by cutting the hair from the top of her head down to the scalp (her hair had grown back when the pictures were taken).

On May 7, 2004, Tang Yubao and group chief Jiang Zhaohua took Ms. Gao to an office and cuffed her to the heating pipe again. Tang and Jiang continuously shocked Ms. Gao with electric batons for 6-7 hours. Ms. Gao’s face was left swollen, blistered, charred, and deformed beyond recognition. Her hair was stuck to the bloody pus on her scorched skin. Her swollen face reduced her eyes to mere slits, and her mouth was also distorted due to the swelling. Even the inmates could not recognize her.

That same day, Ms. Gao was forced out of the window of the labor camp office on the second floor. After she was sent to the hospital, she was diagnosed with two fractures of her pelvis, her left leg was severely fractured and the bone in her right heel was split. Due to her weak physical condition, the hospital could not even perform surgery on her.

To cover up the torture, the Longshan Labor Camp and the Shenyang City Judicial Bureau lied, saying that the electric shock wounds on Ms. Gao’s face were just abrasions due to her “fall” from the office window.

Later, the police sent her to the No. 1 Affiliated Hospital of the China Medical University, where they intended to keep her under close watch so as to prevent the torture exposed to the outside world. Due to continuous torture, the disfigured Gao Rongrong developed hematuria and has not been able to take food since August 9, 2004. She is as thin as a skeleton. Ms. Gao has requested to be allowed to return home. However, the higher authorities at the Longshan Labor Camp, as well as Shenyang City Judiciary Bureau have refused to release her.

On August 20, 2004, the Longshan Labor Camp director Li Fengshi, and the Shenyang City Judiciary Bureau Labor Camp Administration Division chief Liu Bo came to the Hospital to inform Gao Rongrong and her family that if she did not cooperate, she would be sent to the Dabei Prison Hospital. The Dabei Prison Hospital is in fact a facility to detain people, and family members of the detainees are not allowed to visit.

We are very concerned about Ms. Gao Rongrong’s life and hereby request an urgent action by the United Nations to safeguard the life of Ms. Gao.

Ms. Gao Rongrong’s face after the torture

Ms. Gao Rongrong before the torture