(Minghui.org) A 72-year-old Linghai City, Liaoning Province, resident was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 4,000 yuan on November 13, 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Ms. Li Jinqiu has filed an appeal.
Ms. Li, a retired accountant for the Linghai City Grain Bureau, was arrested on July 31, 2023 while distributing Falun Gong materials at a community fair. Officers from the Dalinghe Police Station raided her home in the afternoon and confiscated her Falun Gong books, computer, printer, and 18,000 yuan in cash.
Ms. Li was held in the Jinzhou City Women’s Detention Center. Jinzhou City oversees Linghai City.
The Linghai City Procuratorate approved her arrest on August 11 and moved her case to the Linghai City Court. She stood trial on November 6 and was sentenced one week later. For details of her court hearing, see the first related report listed at the end of this article.
Taking up Falun Gong
Ms. Li used to suffer from numerous diseases, including congenital heart disease, neurosis, hypotension, hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, pharyngitis, iritis in her right eye, vertigo, stomach cramps, and insomnia. She often fell into a coma due to her complicated medical conditions. She was extremely weak and saw no hope in life.
All of her illnesses disappeared after she took up Falun Gong in 1996. She also became a better person. At home, she was a good wife, mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law. At work, she was well regarded as a conscientious worker who never fought for her personal interests.
After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Ms. Li remained firm in her faith and was arrested multiple times. She was twice given forced labor terms totaling four years at the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp. She suffered brutal torture during the detentions.
Earliest Persecution
Ms. Li and two other local Falun Gong practitioners embarked on a journey to Beijing on September 26, 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong. They were intercepted in Tashan Township, Huludao City, Liaoning Province. The local police picked them up and took them back to Linghai. They were beaten during the police interrogation and released after 18 days of detention. Each was also extorted of 1,000 yuan.
Ms. Li’s employer and the local police kept harassing her at home and had people monitor her around the clock.
Ms. Li managed to go to Beijing in mid-October 1999 to appeal again but was arrested on Tiananmen Square when she was unable to produce her ID as ordered (the local police had confiscated her ID). She was taken to the Tiananmen Police Station. An officer concurred with what she said about the persecution of Falun Gong lacking legal basis, but warned her it was no use to appeal to the communist regime. He notified her local police to pick her up. The Linghai police handcuffed her hands behind her back and drove her to the Jinzhou City’s Liaison Office in Beijing before taking her back to Linghai, where she served one month of criminal detention followed by another month of administrative detention.
Three Years of Forced Labor Following Arrest in February 2000
Ms. Li and a few other local practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for the third time on February 4, 2000, but got separated before they reached Tiananmen Square. Ms. Li was taken to the Jianguomen Police Station. She refused to reveal her name and was taken to the Dongcheng District Detention Center the next day. A guard there promised to allow her to write an appeal letter to Jiang Zemin (former Chinese dictator who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong) if she revealed her identity. She believed the guard’s lie and told him her name. She was then given 15 days of criminal detention. Her local police then picked her up and took her to the Jinzhou City’s Liaison Office in Beijing. More than a dozen officers, led by deputy chief Liu Shoucheng of the Linghai City Police Department, interrogated her and demanded to know who else joined her in the trip to Beijing.
She refused to answer and Liu slapped her face with his leather shoes and kicked her on the chest with the shoes. She almost fainted. While escorting her back to Linghai, Liu cuffed her thumbs with a torture device dubbed a “thumb buckle.” The fangs of the “thumb buckle” dug into her flesh and got tighter and tighter as she moved her hands. The pain was so intense that she felt like her thumbs were about to fracture.
Liu and his officers interrogated Ms. Li with torture after taking her back to Linghai. One officer used a broom stick to hit her on the head. She passed out immediately. The police accused her of faking and poured cold water on her to wake her up. They yanked her up from the ground and continued the beating. Her buttocks and legs were blue and purple, and she walked with a limp as a result. After hours of torture, the police took her to a local detention center.
Most of the practitioners who went to Beijing on February 4, 2000 were also severely beaten because Wang Shuzhong, then secretary of the Linghai Municipal Party Committee, issued an order, “Beat them to death!”
Tortured at Masanjia Labor Camp
Ms. Li was given three years of forced labor on March 16, 2000 and taken to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, where she was forced to do hard labor without pay during the day and bombarded with anti-Falun Gong propaganda at night. She refused to renounce her faith, and was often forced to squat and subjected to other forms of torture.
One day in late April 2000, Ms. Li and a few other steadfast practitioners were taken to a room to be tortured for upholding their faith. Captain Wang Naimin and guard Wang Shuzheng pinned her to the ground and took off her shoes and socks, before shocking the soles of her feet with two electric batons simultaneously. Her legs trembled, and the soles of her feet felt like being bitten by snakes. The two guards then shocked her on the neck and the back of her hands, leaving bright blisters everywhere. They next stripped off her jacket and shocked her on the chest and back. Wang Naimin even shocked her in the mouth. Her face twisted and became deformed. Her mouth bled profusely.
The two guards shocked Ms. Li until their electric batons ran out of charge. The other practitioners suffered the same torture. The corridor was filled with the crackling sound of electric shocks, the screams of the practitioners, and the pungent smell of burnt flesh.
After Ms. Li was sent back to her cell, team lead Qiu Ping forced her to squat for several hours straight.
Such relentless torture caused tremendous damage to Ms. Li’s health. In late May 2000, she suddenly collapsed on the ground and lost consciousness while going through a physical examination per the guards’ order. Several practitioners carried her into a room. Her blood pressure was zero at that point.
Released on Parole but Taken Back Into Custody to Finish Labor Camp Term
Ms. Li was released on medical parole in late January 2001. The police often harassed her at home, sometimes knocking on the door in the middle of the night.
Ms. Li went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong the fourth time in late September 2001. She was arrested on Tiananmen Square and taken to the Tiananmen Police Station. That afternoon, staffers from the Jinzhou City’s Liaison Office picked her up and took her to their office. The Linghai police came in the evening and took her back to Masanjia Labor Camp to finish the remainder of her term (her husband was forced to cover the police’s travel expenses).
The labor camp guards held Ms. Li in a storage room and subjected her to brainwashing. She was not allowed to talk to others or walk around.
The labor camp launched a new round of persecution in November 2002 aimed at forcing all practitioners to renounce their faith. Ms. Li and other steadfast practitioners were bombarded with anti-Falun Gong materials every night. Ten days later, the guards ordered them to step out of their cells and stay in the hallway. Ms. Li was forced to squat in the hallway for three straight days and not allowed to use the restroom.
Team leader Zhang Lei ordered those practitioners who had given up their belief under pressure to work in shifts to persuade Ms. Li to renounce Falun Gong. They deprived her of sleep for seven consecutive days and forced her to listen to their warped notions. She became dazed and couldn’t think straight. Zhang also slapped her in the face and kicked her with his leather shoes.
Ms. Li was moved to another room in December 2002 to attend a “studying class,” where she was forced to read, watch, and listen to anti-Falun Gong propaganda.
Ms. Li was released on March 16, 2003.
Given One Year of Forced Labor Following Arrest in September 2009
Ms. Li was cooking dinner at her mother’s house in Jinzhou City on September 13, 2009, when Lu Hao from the Jinzhou City Domestic Security Office and six officers from the Linghai City Domestic Security Office deceived her into opening the door by claiming to be from the housing bureau to assess the house.
The police arrested Ms. Li and her husband Mr. Zhang Deguo, who had been living with her mother temporarily to care for the elderly woman. The couple’s Falun Gong books, two laptop computers, two printers, and other valuables were confiscated.
The couple’s son, Mr. Zhang Lei, was arrested at his workplace (Xinhualong Copper Co., Ltd. in Jinzhou City) that morning. His wife Ms. Zhao Xiaochun and her mother, Ms. He Yuxiang, were arrested at their respective homes in Linghai in the afternoon.
The five members of the extended family were all held overnight at the Linghai City Domestic Security Office. After a brief interrogation the next day, Ms. Li, Ms. Zhao, Ms. He, and Mr. Zhang Deguo were given 15 days of administrative detention, and Mr. Zhang Lei was given criminal detention of unknown length. The three women were taken to the Jinzhou City Lockup, the elder Mr. Zhang to the Linghai City Lockup, and the younger Mr. Zhang to the Linghai City Detention Center.
Mr. Zhang Lei was later sentenced to five years in Dalian Prison, while his four family members were each given one year of forced labor to be served at the Masanjia Labor Camp.
Ms. Li Tortured Again at Same Labor Camp
The labor camp launched a new round of persecution in November 2009 targeting steadfast practitioners. On November 27 that year, Ms. Li was subjected to the leg splitting torture. Her perpetrators included guards Zhang Jun, Zhang Zhuohui, Fang Yehong, Zou Xiaoguang, and Zhang Xiurong.
Torture reenactment: Splitting the legs
The guards tied one of Ms. Li’s feet to a heating pipe, then pulled her other leg in the opposite direction. She struggled to get away, and the guards called in help. They untied her foot and sat her down next to a metal safe. They next pulled her legs in opposite directions and held her head and arms tight to prevent her from moving. Several people stomped on her legs, and claimed that this time the leg splitting was “up to standard.”
Ms. Li felt suffocated, and suffered splitting pain in her hips. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. Her legs began to lose feelings and she passed out. After an unknown period of time, she heard Zhang Jun saying, “Let’s stop. She has fallen asleep.”
Ms. Li’s legs became deformed and weak afterwards. She couldn’t walk and was carried back to her cell. When she took off her clothes for the night, she saw bruises on her chest and legs, and she was unable to turn over her body. She moaned in pain for the entire night, and her cellmates were unable to sleep as well. She was taken outside at 4 a.m. to face another round of torture.
A male guard held her head and ordered her to bend her body. She fell, as she couldn’t stand on her deformed legs. The guard then ordered her to squat, which she couldn’t do either. He reprimanded her and then put earbuds in her ears and forced her to listen to anti-Falun Gong audio materials.
On the third morning, Ms. Li passed out and was taken to the labor camp’s in-house hospital for an x-ray. She was found to have muscle strain, but the guards still had people carry her to the workshop every day to do hard labor without pay. To prevent her family from finding out about her torture, the guards never allowed her loved ones to visit her.
Ms. Li was reduced to just skin and bones in just ten months of her labor camp detention. She still couldn’t walk. The guards took her to the in-house hospital for another checkup. She was found to have bone spurs in her right leg and knee. The guards took her to an outside prison hospital for a CT scan, and the doctors there said that she had a lumbar dislocation. Despite her condition, the guards did not allow her to receive medical treatment and ordered her to pay the more than 600 yuan examination fee. Guard Shao, in charge of her hospital visit, never issued her a receipt or gave her a copy of her exam results.
Ms. Li was released on September 13, 2010. Her husband carried her into the car, as she was still unable to walk. When they got back home, her family and neighbors, who had been awaiting her return, were shocked to see she couldn’t get out of the car by herself.
Through doing Falun Gong exercises, Ms. Li recovered somewhat in the next few years, but she still could not do heavy work. She had relapses of back and leg pain from time to time, and she would again struggle to walk.
Related reports:
72-Year-Old Woman Stands Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
Family of Five Persecuted in Linghai City, Liaoning Province
Mr. Zhang Lei Arrested, Four Relatives Sent to Forced Labor Camp
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