Name: Leng Dongmei (冷冬梅)
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Hongqi Town, Fengcheng City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Former president of the Township Government Women's Association and civil servant
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 14, 2008
Most recent place of detention: The Donggang City Detention Center (东港看守所)
City: Donggang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Detention, tortured, physical constraint, lost job, illegal sentencing, imprisonment, beatings, forced labor.
(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Leng Dongmei, who maintained her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, appealed to the government to end the persecution of Falun Gong and clarified the truth of Falun Gong to people. She was sent to a labor camp and prison for a total of ten years, where she suffered brutal torture. Her family has endured extreme mental stress and economic loss as a result of the persecution of Ms. Leng.
Ms. Leng Dongmei started to practice Falun Gong in the spring of 1998. After practicing, her chronic illnesses--allergic rhinitis, asthma, onychomycosis, athlete's foot and insomnia--were cured. She followed the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in her work for the town government. She always considered others first and preferred loss to unjust gain. She was considered to be very capable and of a high moral character.
Jiang Zemin started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Ms. Leng Dongmei was required by her superiors to watch videos which slandered Falun Gong. She did not understand why such a good practice was suddenly forbidden, and she refused to give it up. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) party secretary called Ms. Leng Dongmei's parents after she left work for the day. When Ms. Leng got home, her parents tried to persuade her to give up the practice, and they burned her Dafa books. Ms. Leng Dongmei did not sleep at all that night but sat on the floor.
After serious consideration, Leng Dongmei decided to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. In 2000 she wrote a letter to Jiang Zemin and shared her experience of how she benefited from the practice, stating that Falun Gong should not be persecuted because it is good for the people and the country. But the letter was returned to the Fengcheng City government. The leadership of the Hongqi Town government was then criticized by the level above them.
1. Sentenced to Two Years in Labor Camp for Appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing
In November 2000, Ms. Leng Dongmei went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested by police in Tiananmen Square. A male policeman snatched her bag and also stomped hard on her fingers. She was sent to the Beijing Yongdingmen Police Station. Forty or fifty other Falun Gong practitioners were also detained there. They were forced to tell their names and addresses.
Ms. Leng was sent back to Fengcheng City and detained in the Fengcheng City Detention Center. She practiced Falun Gong at the detention center, and as a result, the guards tortured her with a special torture instrument. Her hands and feet were bound together to two 5-cm diameter iron bars, forcing her into a position in which she could not straighten her back. When she walked, she had to hold the iron bars to move one step each time. She could not take off her clothing at night. Two iron bars were put on her feet. Ms. Leng was tortured for eight days and nights with this method. When the torture instrument was taken off, she almost fell when she tried to straighten up. One time her family members took her five-year-old son to see her. Her son was standing at the windows with iron bars. He said "Grandpa, please hurry up to buy a saw to cut the iron bars and let mama go home." Her family members all cried.
Ms. Leng Dongmei was sent to the labor camp for a two-year term. She lost her job and her company was implicated for this also. The town government lost the title of “civilized town.” The monthly one-hundred-yuan “spiritual civilization award” for every person was canceled.
2. Sentenced for Four Years' Imprisonment and Forced to Divorce
In the fall of 2002, Ms. Leng Dongmei was reported to the police while she was distributing Falun Gong fliers. Director of the local police station Men Guangjun, police officer He Yuxin, and Xu Jinguang ordered Ms. Leng to go to the police station. She and her husband refused their request.
The next Saturday, the police forced Ms. Leng Dongmei to go to the police station. The director of the local police station, Men Guangjun, interrogated Ms. Leng and sent policemen to ransack her house. They found Falun Dafa books and a bag of truth-clarification materials. They sent Ms. Leng to the Fengcheng City Detention Center. In October she was sentenced to four years in prison.
Ms. Leng was jailed in the Fifth Division of Dabei Prison, Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Team leader Jia Yingchun did not allow her to talk to or even look at other Falun Gong practitioners. Three collaborators monitored Ms. Leng day and night. One of them would follow her even when she went to the restroom at night. During the detention, her asthma relapsed. She was hospitalized often and sometimes stayed there for a month at a time. Six-thousand yuan was spent on the hospitalization. She also had kidney problems and had to go to restroom very often. One time she was yelled at by collaborator Hou Xuhong because Hou had to follow her to the restroom at night.
One year later, Ms. Leng was released on medical bail. Her family members were afraid of the CCP and monitored her every moment. They did not allow her to practice Falun Gong. Her hematuria was very severe. Due to having multiple illnesses, she could not take medication at the same time for all of them. She asked to be allowed to practice Falun Gong. Her parents were strongly against it. They cursed at and beat her and did not allow her to sit in meditation. She found a chance to escape but was found by her dad and brother. They hid her shoes so that she could not go out.
Leng Dongmei's husband, who worked for the Hongqi Town government, heard that another round of visits to Falun Gong practitioners was planned. He came home and asked whether Ms. Leng Dongmei would give up Falun Gong and asked her to decide between him and Falun Gong. Ms. Leng said she wanted to keep both in her life. Her husband said he was under great mental pressure and could not endure it any more. He requested a divorce and said he would go to court if Ms. Leng Dongmei did not grant the divorce. With no choice, Ms. Leng Dongmei agreed to divorce.
3. Sentenced to Four Years' Imprisonment Again
On November 14, 2008, Ms. Leng Dongmei and fellow practitioners Liu Yinfeng and Wang Chunzhen were reported by villager Xiao Li and others while they were talking to people about Falun Gong at Huangqi Village, Hongqi Town. Police from Hongqi Town, led by Director Ju Chunbo, arrested them. They were sent to three different places: Liu Yinfeng was sent to Dandong City Detention Center, Wang Chunzhen was sent to Fengcheng City Detention Center, and Ms. Leng Dongme was sent to Donggang City Detention Center.
Donggang City Detention Center is wet and cold, and the walls are moldy. The food there is terrible, with worms floating in the cabbage soup. The best meal of the week was chicken soup cooked with chicken necks. Sometimes chicken manure could be found in the soup. Inmates are forced to buy blankets and other everyday articles at high prices. They are forced to work. Female section chief Chi Aiming slapped Ms. Leng Dongmei's face when she refused to wear the prison uniform. When Ms. Leng questioned her as to why she hit people, Chi Aiming said, "I won't hit you, but I will order inmates to hit you." She called two inmates, Wu Yang and Li Yi, and said she was going transfer Ms. Leng Dongmei to another section. Ms. Leng Dongmei refused to move and held onto some bars. Two people brutally dragged and pushed her. As a result, her arm was black and blue for several days.
During her previous court session, Ms. Leng Dongmei had shouted "Falun Dafa is good." This time, the trial was held secretly and the authorities did not notify her family members. Only a policeman whose family name was Cheng was present. Ms. Leng Dongmei and Liu Yinfeng defended themselves as not guilty, but they were sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Ms. Leng appealed, but the appeal was dismissed by the Dandong Intermediate People's Court. The conviction was upheld.
Ms. Leng Dongmei appeared to be seriously ill at the Donggang City Detention Center. Donggang City Center Hospital diagnosed her with heart failure and at risk of dying any time, and also with severe asthma. Hence, Dabei Prison refused to take her. She is currently out on medical bail.
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