Ms. Liang Xuelin, 55, from Hunan Province Passed Away After Years of Abuse

Name: Liang Xuelin
Gender: Female
Age: 55
Address: Huitong County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province
Occupation: Retiree of Huitong County Film Company
Date of Death: September 25th, 2012
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 21st, 2005
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hunan Women's Prison
City: Huaihua
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, imprisonment, extortion, detention

Ms. Liang Xuelin, a Falun Gong practitioner from Huitong County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province, passed away on September 25th, 2012 at the age of 55 after long periods of torture and abuse in prison.

Despite China's constitution, which warrants its citizens the freedom of spiritual belief and speech, Ms. Liang was repeatedly arrested and incarcerated for practising and explaining the facts about Falun Gong to people She was unconstitutionally sentenced to five years in Hunan Women's Prison in 2005 where she faced severe torture as a means to force her to renounce Falun Gong. When she finally succumbed to the torture and renounced Falun Gong, she was not only damaged in health, but devastated at heart. She was released in 2008, but never recovered.

Ms. Liang had gallstones, gallbladder contraction, and ascariasis before she practised Falun Gong. She once had treatments for four weeks at a renowned hospital in another province but to no avail. She started practising Falun Gong in 1998 and was cured of all her diseases. More importantly, Falun Gong transformed her into a more generous, forgiving and considerate person.

Since the Chinese regime started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Long Fengliang, Deputy Secretary of Huitong County Party Committee, along with the local 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and the local police department, have been executing the regime's unconstitutional policy on Falun Gong. Ms. Liang was repeatedly arrested, detained and imprisoned.

To establish their good work performance reviews, the local authorities round up all Falun Gong practitioners before such “sensitive days” as important holidays and World Falun Dafa Day, and put them in detention centres temporarily as a preventive measure to stop them from going to Beijing and appealing for Falun Gong. [Note: It is the constitutional right of every citizen in China to appeal to the Appeals Office in Beijing, an independent government agency outside of the regular judicial hierarchy which is meant to run independent investigations on the reported cases and uphold justice for those citizens of China who believe the justice system has failed them.]

Ms. Liang was arrested and put in the detention centre without any charge four times in 2000 alone. The police once arrested her before an important holiday in May 2000 while she was grocery shopping in a local market, but told everyone that they successfully intercepted her while she was on her way to Beijing.

She was followed even on non-sensitive days and her home phone line was tapped. She was deprived of the freedom of assembly as a citizen of China. The police accused her of illegal assembly when she called on another Falun Gong practitioner and accused her of plotting when she ran into that practitioner on the street.

Ms. Liang traveled to her parents' place in August 2000 to help them with the harvest. Wu Yongchang, a police officer assigned to watch her, suspected she might be leaving for Beijing, so he had several police cars dispatched to the bus stations and train stations. The police hunted her all the way to Huaihua Train Station and searched each and every cart in order to find her.

In addition, the police harassed her at home, at work and even at her relatives' and friends' homes from time to time.

Ms. Liang had no choice but to go to Beijing and exercise her constitutional right to appeal to the State Appeals Office in December 2000. However, China's Appeals Office had already become a facade and a trap for Falun Gong practitioners who still had faith in the justice system in China. Ms. Liang ended up being arrested and sentenced to two years in a forced labour camp without any prosecution or trial. The police did not notify her family when she was sent to the labour camp, but issued them a 3,000-yuan¹ fine.

Ms. Liang's husband was a mid-ranked police officer, chairman of the local police disciplinary committee, and chairman of the local police union. Feeling his family was falling apart because his wife was repeatedly arrested and harassed, he filed a complaint to a high-level police disciplinary department against the local 610 Office and the local police officers. He requested disciplinary action be taken because it is unconstitutional and illegal to have his wife persecuted for her spiritual faith in Falun Gong. The accused police officers retaliated. When they stopped Ms. Liang from going to Beijing in December 2000, they fired her husband from his job for the reason that he was guilty by association. To add insult to injury, they even made him a security guard standing post at a gate. He was eventually reinstated as a police officer in 2002, but never got his position back.

Ms. Liang was arrested on April 3rd, 2002 and taken to a detention centre without any charges laid. The police told her husband that she would be released after two days at a forced brainwashing centre, but in actual fact she was incarcerated without any prosecution or trial. Her husband became ill and passed away at the age of 52 in August 2002 while she was incarcerated. She was released only because her husband passed away. The police even had the funeral monitored to collect a list of Falun Gong practitioners that might have previously fallen below their radar.

Ms. Liang was arrested again in June 2003 while she was exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in a rural area. She managed to escape, but had to go into hiding. The police put a bounty on her and threatened her friends and relatives. They even ransacked her friends' and relatives' homes without any search warrant.

Ms. Liang knew that she was entitled to freedom of spiritual belief as a Chinese citizen and that she should never have been imprisoned or had her salary suspended. She went to work on February 21st, 2005 to ask for her suspended salary. She was asked to get a written approval from the police department, but she ended up being arrested again when she entered the police department. She was sentenced to five years in Hunan Women's Prison.

The prison subjected all Falun Gong practitioners to torture, including, but not limited to, standing, squatting or wearing handcuffs for long periods of time, solitary confinement, and long hours of slave labour. In addition, practitioners were forced to watch hate propaganda films against Falun Gong. The prison guards and the inmates working to get prison term reductions would stop at nothing to twist the minds of Falun Gong practitioners, force them to give up the practice, and sing praises to the Chinese Communist Party that forces them to betray their conscience and lie.

The long periods of mental and physical torment in prison took a severe toll on Ms. Liang's health. Her body became swollen and frail and she complained about frequent headaches and dizziness. She was eventually taken to the prison doctor and diagnosed with a stroke. She was released after three weeks of unsuccessful treatment in prison. She continued to battle with illness and the haunting memory of the abuses in prison over the following four years until she passed away on September 25th, 2012.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.