CAT/C/53/D/511/2012 people like to go to Tiananmen Square to sing and dance to welcome the New Year. We Falun Gong practitioners go to Tiananmen Square to practise the exercises and display Falun Gong symbol and slogans, what’s wrong with that?” Luo Gan verbally abused the complainant and ordered the policemen to take turns monitoring her at night. During the seven days of her detention, she asked to meet with the Australian consul each day, but was consistently refused. One day, four or five police officers surrounded her to compel her to write a declaration stating that she would renounce her Australian citizenship. They stated that if she did not do so, they would kill her family members. She refused to write the statement and went on a hunger strike in protest for about three or four days. On 11 February 2000, the police forcibly confiscated the plane tickets that the complainant and her husband had in their possession, and forced them to spend another 10,000 yuan to buy new plane tickets, “in order to devastate [them] financially”. The police escorted the complainant and her husband onto a plane bound for Australia on 11 February 2000. 2.12 On 5 March 2000, the complainant again tried to travel to China from Australia, via Hong Kong, China. She wished to deliver a letter to the leaders of the Government of China to tell them the truth about Falun Gong. Before her departure, she gave her bank card and medical card to her husband and asked him to take good care of their young daughter, because she thought she might not be able to return. The complainant travelled from Hong Kong, China to Shenzhen, China, where a border inspector searched her handbag and found the letter that she had written for the Chinese leaders. The inspector flew into a rage and hit her so hard that her vision became blurry and she became dizzy. As a result of the beating, she lost her hearing for a few days. Border inspector soldiers then detained seven Falun Gong practitioners, including the complainant, in an army camp. They forced the seven of them to stand in the field of the army camp. Over 10 soldiers armed with guns surrounded the practitioners and took turns interrogating them until late in the night, in the cold and without providing them any food. They were then sent to the local detention centre. The complainant was locked up in a crowded and dark cell. She was interrogated and beaten several times a day in order to force her to renounce Falun Gong. The complainant refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong and made requests to see the Australian consul, to have her Falun Gong books returned to her, and to be allowed to practice Falun Gong exercises. All of these requests were denied. 2.13 After 10 days had passed in detention, the complainant began a hunger strike on 16 March 2000. On 31 March 2000, the complainant met the Australian consul from Guangzhong in prison. Weak and thin after 16 days of her hunger strike, the complainant told the consul what she had endured in jail. The police officer tried to interrupt the conversation many times. After the consul left, there was no change in the complainant’s situation. After more than 50 days of her hunger strike, the complainant was emaciated. The police officers showed no sympathy. During her strike, the complainant relied on practising Falun Gong exercises and performed meditation in order to supply energy to her body. When the police officers saw her performing the exercises, they would beat and curse her, pull her hair, pour cold and dirty water on her, and hit her with hard objects. She felt too much pain to be able to sleep at night. The officers shackled her to prevent her from meditating and verbally abused her. The officers forced her to wear dirty and rusty iron shackles weighing more than 10 kilograms in order to prevent her from practising Falun Gong. The shackles pressed against her ankles, causing her severe pain and blisters. 2.14 The cell in which the complainant was detained was dim, wet and congested. The complainant was not permitted to walk outside for several months during detention and did not get any sunlight. Her hair began to fall off in clumps, and her skin became infected with inflamed rashes and ulcers. She was not permitted to sleep on the bed in the cell and had to sleep on the cold cement floor. On one occasion, the police officers told her she should pack her things, as she was being released; they then proceeded to throw her in a cell with only male prisoners, where she was detained for two months. During this time, the guards 5