77-Year-Old Woman Dies After Enduring Nine Years of Wrongful Jail Time and Pension Suspension
(Minghui.org)
Name: Li ShuzhenChinese Name: 黎淑珍Gender: FemaleAge: 77City: ShenyangProvince: LiaoningOccupation: Worker of the Shenyang Fertilizer PlantDate of Death: October 13, 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: Late 2021Most Recent Place of Detention: Shaling Police Station
After Ms. Li Shuzhen barely survived a nine-year hellish prison term for her faith in Falun Gong, the Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, resident, continued to face non-stop police harassment. She was dealt another blow when the local social security bureau suspended her pension in 2020, a year after her husband’s cancer diagnosis. She became bedridden following her husband’s death in 2022 and passed away two years later on October 13, 2024. She was 77.
Ms. Li Shuzhen
Ms. Li, who used to work for the Shenyang Fertilizer Plant, took an early retirement in 1996 at the age of 49 due to her poor health, including conditions with her heart, liver, stomach and duodenum. A few months after her retirement, she began to practice Falun Gong and soon regained her health.
After the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution in 1999, Ms. Li was repeatedly arrested and detained for not giving up her faith.
Ms. Li was sentenced to nine years on May 27, 2004. While serving time at the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison, she was tortured, deprived of sleep, and forced to work more than ten hours a day without pay. She was so weak that she couldn’t walk on her own and needed support from others.
When she was finally released on January 16, 2013, she still couldn’t live a normal life, as the police and community workers kept harassing her at home.
In 2019, Ms. Li’s husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He had a surgery and still became bedridden. With only 2,500 yuan (346 USD) monthly income to cover his medical cost and their living cost, she was dealt a heavy blow when the local social security bureau suspended her pension in August 2020, claiming that according to a new policy, she shouldn’t have been issued pension payments during her nine-year prison term and the suspension of future benefits was to claw back the funds. She contacted several government agencies to seek justice, but to no avail.
Ms. Li was arrested again at the end of 20021, after she was reported for distributing Falun Gong materials. While the arresting officers from the Shaling Police Station released her on bail soon afterwards, they kept harassing her and submitted her case to the local procuratorate six months later. They also deceived her into signing multiple documents about her case, claiming that that was the only way for the prosecutor to dismiss her case.
For the next few months, the local police and community workers continued to harass Ms. Li and forced her to remove the satellite dish she had to receive uncensored TV programs from overseas media. She also found herself being followed when she went out. By then, she had already been struggling with failing health and had difficulty walking.
Her husband’s death in 2022 was the last straw. She suffered from severe medical conditions and became bedridden. She passed away two years later on October 13, 2024.