(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Li Haiyan and her parents, Mr. Li Jinrong and Ms. Yu Xiulan, were Falun Gong practitioners. They lived at the Sixth Committee on Center Street in Dayangshu Town, Elunchun Autonomous Prefecture, Hulunbeier City, Inner Mongolia. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, the Li family was torn apart.

The Death of Ms. Yu Xiulan

Ms. Yu Xiulan, over 60 years old, was a volunteer assistant at a Falun Gong practice site in Dayangshu Town. She died as a result of persecution on December 25, 2002 at the hands of security police in Inner Mongolia.

Before Ms. Yu practiced Falun Gong, she suffered from serious vasculitis and gastritis. Her legs were so painful that she was often bed-ridden. She sought many doctors for treatment, but to no avail. In 1996, she started practicing Falun Gong. Gradually, all her illnesses disappeared. Falun Gong gave her a new, healthy life.

After the persecution started, on September 26, 1999, the Li family went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. They were arrested by police even before they arrived at the Appeals Office, and were sent back to their local police station. The police detained them in the Dayangshu Detention Center. During the detention, because Ms. Yu insisted on doing the Falun Gong exercises and refused to sign the "Three Notices"--which were designed to criticize Falun Gong--she was sent to Ali River Prison, where she was detained for 10 months. She was bailed out by her family on July 10, 2000.

Ms. Yu did not give up her practice and belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She tirelessly tried to expose the persecution of Falun Gong, and she was repeatedly arrested and detained by police. On November 12, 2000, Director Bai Li and officers Liu Changxiao and Peng Jinbao from the Center Street Police Station in Dayangshu Town went to Ms. Yu's home and arrested her. They detained her in the Second Detention Center in Elunchun Autonomous Prefecture. People who were directly involved in the persecution of Ms. Yu also included Deputy Director Li Shuliang and officers Li Benxue and Xu Changfa. Ms. Yu went on a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention. In late December 2001, Ms. Yu became extremely weak. Not wanting to take responsibility for her condition, the police released her.

Before the New Year holidays of 2002, police from the Bureau of Public Security and the Center Street Police Station intruded into Ms. Yu's house. Despite the fact that Ms. Yu was very weak at that time, they took her to the court, where they were holding a trial for her husband Mr. Li Jinrong and another practitioner Xu Changqing. Because Ms. Yu went into convulsions and lost consciousness, the court had no choice but to agree to send her to the hospital. A few days later, Chen Peng, the judge, and his staff went to Ms. Yu's home again and said they wanted to hold the trial at her home. Ms. Yu was sentenced to three years in prison, and Mr. Li Jinrong and Xu Changqing were put under a three-year probation. Chen Peng said, "You are not allowed to defend yourself, because this is the policy from above."

On April 2, 2002, Yan Lihua, the town party secretary, and his colleagues went to Ms. Yu's home and inquired about her. At that time, Ms. Yu's health had recovered due to her perseverance in doing the Falun Gong exercises. Just a few minutes after Yan left her house, Director of the detention center Lian Sheng, Peng Jinbao, the prison doctor Su Baohua, and more than 10 other police officers intruded into Ms. Yu's house and forcibly took her to the Baoan Labor Camp.

Before Ms. Yu was sent to the prison, she was in good health. Police officer Zhou Jianhua and others brutally tortured her for more than seven months until she died.

Ms. Yu was locked in a room and tortured for long periods of time. Zhou handcuffed her hands and legs and didn't allow her to go to the bathroom. He would send some prisoners to feed her a little bit of rice when she was hungry. He would release her for a short while only when her life was in jeopardy. Afterward, he would immediately put her back into a confinement cell--a small iron cage where she couldn't sit up or stretch her legs--where she was continuously tortured. Zhou also exposed Ms. Yu to high temperature until she fainted, and locked her in a closed room where there was no sunlight.

Because of the torture, Ms. Yu developed symptoms of stroke. She couldn't walk or talk clearly, and she became emaciated. When her family asked the police to release her on medical parole, they said, "There's a policy from above. If she isn't "transformed", she won't be released, even if she dies." The squad leader also said the same thing.

On December 22, 2002, Ms. Yu died as a result of the persecution she suffered. She was terribly emaciated at that point. On December 25, 2002, the police called Ms. Yu's family and asked them to come to the prison to pick up her body. They didn't allow them to take off her prison uniform. After many requests by the family, the prison authorities finally agreed to let them change her clothing before a hasty cremation.

Son held as a hostage, father sentenced

Ms. Yu's husband Mr. Li Jinrong escaped from the Inner Mongolia-Beijing Office when he was arrested by the police that night. When Li Shuliang learned about the news, he sent some police to search for him, but they couldn't find him. As a result, Yan Lihua and Li Shuliang went to Ms. Li Haiyan's home and arrested her oldest brother, who was not a practitioner. They held him as a hostage and used torture to force him to tell them the whereabouts of his father. They also told his family members, "If Li Jinrong doesn't come back, no hostage will be released." Ms. Li Haiyan's second oldest brother was thus forced to look for their father, and eventually he was released in exchange for his father. Mr. Li Jinrong was later sentenced to three years of probation by the CCP court.

Ms. Yu's daughter Ms. Li Haiyan died as a result of persecution

Ms. Li Haiyan was repeatedly arrested, detained and sentenced to a forced labor camp since September 1999. She died as a result of the persecution in 2005.

In September 1999, Ms. Li Haiyan, her parents, Zhao Hongzhi and other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, where they were arrested and sent back. They were then detained in the Dayangshu Detention Center. That evening, De Yulin and two other armed police officers brutally beat Ms. Li and kicked her in the legs. Her face became deformed, and her teeth became loose. She couldn't eat anything solid for a long time. Her legs were swollen so badly that she couldn't take off her shoes. The police tortured her cruelly for 10 months.

In November 2000, Ms. Li suffered from pleural tuberculosis because of the cruel torture she endured at the Dayangshu Police Department. In June 2001, after being extorted out of nearly 10,000 yuan, she was released to go home. Through practicing the Falun Gong exercises, Ms. Li's health recovered.

Later, Ms. Li Haiyan and her mother were again arrested and detained in Ali Detention Center. After she was released, she was arrested for the third time for handing out truth-clarification materials on the street. She was later released on medical parole, and was forced to move from place to place without a home.

On May 19, 2002, police officers from Nenjiang County, Ninety-Three Farm and Jiagedaqi City, Heilongjiang Province ransacked a truth-clarification center in Jiagedaqi City, and Ms. Li was arrested for the fourth time.

Because Ms. Li refused to tell the police her name and address during the interrogation, she was viciously beaten for 14 hours, resulting in cuts and bruises covering her body. They tied her to a tiger bench and hit her with a metal belt. There were purple bruises all over her back, and she couldn't walk on her own. The police officers also inserted a lit cigarette into her nose and poured alcohol into her mouth. Ms. Li went on a hunger strike for more than 20 days to protest her persecution, and she was only met with punitive forced-feeding that harmed her even further.

Ms. Li Haiyan was later sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Jiagedaqi Court in Heilongjiang Province, and was transferred to the Seventh Section of the Harbin Women's Prison. When she was detained there, she was again tortured in a variety of ways, resulting in tuberculosis and vomiting of blood. On the verge of death, she was sent to a supervised hospital for treatment.

Ms. Li Haiyan's family repeatedly requested that the prison police release her on medical parole. She was finally released on September 2, 2004.

Four months later, at about 4:00 a.m. on January 13, 2005, Ms. Li died, unable to recover from the brutal torture that she had suffered. She was only 30 years old, and her weight had dropped from about 100 pounds down to about 50 pounds just before her death.

At about 9:00 a.m. on the same day, police officer Zhang Xiling, the civil administrator, the appointed director of the street, and several other people quickly cremated Ms. Li's body.