(Minghui.org)
Name: Li MinChinese Name: 李民Gender: MaleAge: 52City: HarbinProvince: HeilongjiangOccupation: FarmerDate of Death: July 6, 2022Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 12, 2013Most Recent Place of Detention: Hulan Prison
Having endured over ten years of prison torture for practicing Falun Gong, a Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province resident succumbed to the mental and physical distress and passed away on July 6, 2022. He was 52 years old.
Mr. Li Min took up Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline also known as Falun Dafa, in the spring of 1997. Shortly after, his kidney condition and neck problem were gone. After the Chinese communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, he was repeatedly targeted for not renouncing his faith.
Teeth Fell Out From Beating
Mr. Li went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on October 25, 2000. He displayed a banner that said “Falun Dafa is good” at Tiananmen Square. The Beijing police arrested him and took him to the Harbin City’s office in Beijing. When he arrived there, another 30 practitioners from Harbin who had also appealed in Beijing were already detained there.
Mr. Li was taken back to Harbin seven days later and held at the Tonghe County Detention Center. The guards whipped his face with their shoes. They also handcuffed and shackled him. With his family’s strong demands, the guards released Mr. Li after 23 days. Due to the beating, all of his teeth fell out shortly after.
Family Falls Apart During One Year of Forced Labor
Mr. Li was arrested again on March 31, 2001. The police beat him in front of his nine-year-old daughter. She cried out, “Don’t beat my dad! My dad is a good person!” But the police ignored her.
Chi Haibo, then chief of Nonghe Town Police Station, beat Mr. Li at the Tonghe County Detention Center. He had severe nose bleeding as a result. Another officer, Guo Biao, kicked Mr. Li in his throat, causing him to be unable to talk for a long time.
Teng Zhenxin, head of the detention center, forced Mr. Li to wear 20-pound shackles for 16 days. Guard Ma Jun ordered the inmates to beat Mr. Li with PVC pipes which left him covered with bruises. The inmates also deprived him of sleep, stripped his clothes when the weather was still very cold, and forced him to stand facing an open window.
Mr. Li was given one year of force labor three months later. Before he was taken to the Changlizi Forced Labor Camp, detention center head Teng extorted 300 yuan from his family when they came to visit him. Many other practitioners’ families were also extorted.
Mr. Li held a hunger strike with other practitioners for 12 days starting on July 15, 2001. Among them, Mr. Ju Yajun was force-fed soy powder in brine for 17 days. He passed away three days after being released.
Mr. Li’s forced labor term and subsequent police harassment dealt his father a heavy blow and the older man passed away shortly after. This further aggravated the mental distress of Mr. Li’s mother. She fell ill and became bedridden. At the same time, Mr. Li’s wife divorced him and left their nine-year-old daughter with his incapacitated mother.
Mr. Li was released on March 15, 2002, but still faced constant police harassment.
On October 25, 2002, before the Communist Party’s 16th Party Congress, Mr. Li was arrested again and held at a brainwashing center for 33 days.
Sentenced to Five Years
Mr. Li was arrested one more time on July 20, 2005, after the police discovered he was printing informational materials about Falun Gong at home. His computer, printer, DVD burners, cellphone, and bank cards were all confiscated. Two other practitioners, Mr. Fu Hai and Ms. Liu Ying, were also arrested.
The three practitioners held a hunger strike to protest the persecution as soon as they were taken to the local detention center. The guards covered their heads with plastic bags and later force-fed them.
Torture reenactment: Head covered with plastic bag
Guard Chen Yongkuan also verbally insulted Ms. Liu on July 21. When Mr. Li tried to stop him, Chen took him to a room that had no surveillance camera and beat him. His right lower jaw was fractured as a result.
After nine months at the detention center, Mr. Li was sentenced to a five-year prison term by the Fangzheng County Court. Mr. Fu and Ms. Liu were given six and four years, respectively.
Mr. Li was taken to the training center at Hulan Prison on April 13, 2006. He stayed in a room with 80 other people. They slept on a 15-meter long bunk bed. During the 13 days he was held there, he was ordered to work without pay, mostly knitting sweaters from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sometimes they worked until 1 a.m. Everyone was ordered to knit five meters of yarn every day. The guards beat them if they couldn’t finish the required length.
Because Mr. Li refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards ordered the inmates to torture him. An inmate covered his head with a plastic bag and inserted two burning cigarettes into his nose. He almost suffocated. Then the inmates rubbed their fists back and forth against his chest and ribs, while stomping on his arms to prevent him from moving.
When the inmates became exhausted fifteen minutes later, they forced Mr. Li to bend over and place his hands and head against the wall. They called the torture “flying an airplane.”
Torture illustration: “Flying an airplane”
They stuffed Mr. Li under the bed at night. His back almost broke. The next morning, guard Li Ji hit him more than ten times with a PVC pipe and forced him to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong.
Torture illustration: Stuffed under a bed
Mr. Li was transferred to Tailai Prison on April 26, 2006. The prison authorities hired a person from Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province in June 2007 to give a seminar to slander Falun Gong. Those who refused to renounce the practice were forced to attend. The prison posted a 1,000-yuan award to any guard who was able to “transform” any practitioner.
As Mr. Li remained firm, the guards tied him to a horizontal “H” shape metal frame, with his hands and feet fastened to it, then left him outdoors from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. The high temperatures caused much heat stress to Mr. Li. He also wasn’t allowed to sleep at night.
He became disoriented after three days of torture. Unable to bear the torture any longer, he was forced to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong. When the guards removed him from the metal frame, he almost fell. It took him a while to regain his balance to walk.
The torture also caused much damage to his back, and he often had pus and blood oozing from his anal area.
Dies After Second Prison Term of 5.5 Years
Mr. Li was arrested again on March 12, 2013, only three years after he was released, again for printing Falun Gong materials at home. His computer, printer, office supplies, and Falun Gong books were confiscated.
The police hung him up by the wrists at the Tonghe County Detention Center and took away the 1,300 yuan cash in his pocket. Mr. Li was later sentenced to 5.5 years and also served time at Hulan Prison. He barely survived the torture and was released on September 11, 2018.
Mr. Li moved to the southern city where his daughter was staying and found a job there. However, the torture he had endured during over ten years in prison took a toll on his health. He developed tuberculosis in October 2021 and passed away on July 6, 2022.
Related reports:
Mr. Li Min Imprisoned Multiple Times, His Family Destroyed
Mr. Li Min from Tonghe County, Heilongjiang Province, Repeatedly Persecuted
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