(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Dai Zhiying, a Falun Dafa practitioner in Shanghai, was being monitored as a key target of the persecution of Falun Dafa. On December 25, 2000, she was illegally arrested in Shandong Province while installing small loudspeakers for broadcasting the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong. Later she was sent back to Shanghai and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. At present, she is still suffering persecution in Songjiang Women's Prison in Shanghai. When Ms. Dai's elderly mother went to visit her, the police made excuses to prevent her from seeing her daughter, who has become emaciated due to the persecution.

Ms. Dai Zhiying is 49 years old and her home address is Room 503, No. 8 of No. 285 Lane, Xincun Road, Putuo District of Shanghai. She used to work in an airport hotel. After she started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996, Ms. Dai became very diligent in cultivation practice and became a volunteer assistant at the People's Park exercise site. Later, she coordinated activities in Shanghai to spread Dafa. Her mother, who is over seventy years old, is also a practitioner. Both of them attended one of Master's Fa lectures overseas.

After Jiang's communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong, Dai Zhiying became one the regimes' major targets and was constantly monitored. On July 21, 1999, Shanghai practitioners appealed for Dafa at the People's Square where the municipal government was located. Just as practitioners in other places encountered, they had no place to express their concerns because the appeal offices were closed to Falun Gong practitioners. That afternoon, the Shanghai Police Department started to restrict the freedom of the practitioners who were peacefully appealing for Falun Gong. Police branches in Shanghai arrested ten of the practitioners.

At the police branches, the police deprived them of sleep and tried to force the practitioners to write statements admitting guilt for their appeal. The next afternoon, the Shanghai Police Department gathered these practitioners (about 30 people) and conducted the so-called "education" to brainwash them. The practitioners were given paper and were ordered to write a "guarantee statement" on the spot. Those who refused to write the statement were taken away again by the local police branches and were made to suffer the continued pressure. Most of them were not detained in actual detention centers, but at places where people are normally not detained in order to "distinguish" it from formal detention.

After Dai Zhiying was released and sent home, she was still under close surveillance at all times. There were always two police cars parked in front of the building where she lived. Ms. Dai was always followed, even when she went to the market. People in the 610 Office often came to her home to harass her and she was often called to the local police station for interrogation. Therefore, in the summer of 2000, Dai Zhiying had no choice but to leave home and begin leading a homeless life.

Less than one week after she left home, personnel from the "610 Office" rushed into her home at midnight intending to abduct Ms. Dai. When they found she had already left, they were furious and yelled, "Don't let us catch you. We will sentence you to 20 years in prison!" After she left home, Dai Zhiying and other fellow practitioners stayed in various places temporarily and did a lot of work to validate Dafa.

On December 25, 2000, when Dai Zhiying was installing small loudspeakers in Shandong Province for broadcasting the facts about the persecution, she was arrested and later sent back to Shanghai. A practitioner named Ms. Li Weiling was arrested at the same time. After she was detained for a little over a year, Ms. Dai was sentenced to 8 years in prison and detained in Songjiang Women's Prison in Shanghai. All those who participated in installing the loudspeakers were also sentenced to long prison terms; some to eight years and some even longer.

When Dai Zhiying was sent to Songjiang Women's Prison, the prison authorities spent much effort in brainwashing her, trying to make her become a model of "transformation," as she was well known and respected among other practitioners. They instigated the collaborators to share so-called "cultivation experiences" with her. When Dai Zhiying discovered that she had been deceived, she immediately wrote a solemn declaration to state that anything she said or wrote that went against Dafa was invalid.

In the environment of the prison, it takes a lot of courage to do so. The prison officials were very furious since all of their efforts were in vain, and "unfavorable" impressions were made. They put Dai Zhiying into a solitary compartment.

Dai Zhiying was detained in the solitary compartment 24 hours a day. All activities, including eating and relieving herself were conducted inside the cell. This was during the hottest period of summer in Shanghai. She was not allowed to take showers, and suffered all kinds of physical and mental torture. Ms. Dai was detained in the solitary compartment for one month. Later, she was transferred to another ward. Dai Zhiying was forced to do heavy labor and suffered abuse from the prison police as well as the criminal inmates.

Ms. Dai's mother went to the prison to see her daughter who had become emaciated. The prison police verbally abused her mother and made it difficult for her to visit. Ms. Dai's younger brother suffered the same treatment when visiting her in prison.

March 3, 2005