Ms. Li Guojun Tortured to Death in 2002

Summary of Key Persecution Facts:

Name: Li Guojun (李国俊)
Gender: Female
Age: 37
Address: Weifang City, Shandong
Occupation: Field labourer
Date of Death: June 5th, 2002
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 16th, 2002
Most recent place of detention: Brainwashing Centre in Shouguang City
City: Shouguang
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, brutal beatings, sleep deprivation, brainwashing
Key Persecutors: Shouguang City 610 Office vice secretary Li Tongzhong, (李同忠), Tian Qingchun (田庆春)

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Guojun was arrested in Weifang City on April 16th, 2002, and held in the Weifang Detention Centre for over a month while being subjected to a variety of tortures. She began a hunger strike, which lasted 12 days, to protest the inhuman persecution. She was later transferred to 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) Brainwashing Centre (at the Shouguang Party School), where she was persecuted to death. She was 37 years old.

“They Beat a Good Person to Death and Claimed It Was Suicide. I Don't Believe It!”

Shouguang Town Political and Legal Affairs Committee secretary Cui Jianjun went to Ms. Li's home early in June 2002, and told her family that she was at the 610 Office Brainwashing Centre. He wanted her husband to pay 2000 yuan¹ for her release. Her husband borrowed the money and gave it to Cui, but her family received notice that Ms. Li had passed away on June 9, 2002.

Her body had already been transferred to the Taotian Town Cremation Plant in Shouguang. Her husband wanted to view the body, but his request was denied. After her entire family insisted, they were allowed to take a quick look. Ms. Li's body was covered with bruises and wounds from head to toe. Blood was dripping from the corner of her mouth, and she was covered with small red spots from electric baton shocks.

Shouguang Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thugs forced her family to have a quick funeral on the morning of June 10th, 2002. Several officers from the police department and 610 Office were there to forbid family members from crying at the funeral. The village people all shed sympathetic tears and talked among themselves, saying, “They beat a good and healthy person to death and claimed it was suicide. I don't believe it!”

Ms. Li died as a result of persecution on June 5th, 2002. Those directly responsible were Shouguang 610 Office vice secretaries Li Tongzhong and Tian Qingchun.

Ms. Li began practising Falun Gong in 1997. She previously had all sorts of illnesses and could not work in the fields due to her poor health. After she learned Falun Gong, she regained her health and was able to work in the fields and take care of her family. After the persecution began in 1999, she went to the town government to clarify the truth and was arrested and persecuted.

Ms. Li's Personal Account of Her Ordeal Before She Passed Away

Ms. Li submitted facts about her persecution to the Minghui website before she passed away, “Because I refused to give up my belief, I was held five times by Shouguang Town government. The longest duration was 80 days. They extorted 14,000 yuan from my family. Shouguang Town government building became a living hell. They used all sorts of ways to torture fellow practitioners and me. We were beaten with thick clubs, bamboo sticks, a wet wooden club, and wine bottles, as well as shocked with electric batons and deprived of sleep.

“Shouguang Town Party vice secretary Liu Xizhong ordered Security Team captain Fu Lingguo to beat me with a rubber stick at around 2:00 p.m. on June 22nd, 2000. Fu began fiercely striking with the rubber stick. Xu Wei from the Family Planning Office, and another person, held me down. Suddenly I could not hear anything and my body became stiff. I felt them carry me to a bed. I had excruciating pain all over my body and passed out. When I came to, they asked, “What's wrong?” I replied, “You all beat me up!” They played dumb, “Really, who?” and asked a physician to check me. At around 5 p.m., they ordered Zhang Guozhong to beat me again. He said, “Go ahead and sue us. Nothing is going to happen.” He picked up the rubber stick and began another round...

“I was beaten in August with three thick bamboo sticks until they were worn to strips and then broke into pieces. The beating lasted for over 30 minutes. That night Zheng Jianping brought two strangers to my room. One of them was named Wei (female). They took me to a dark room, pushed me down, and beat me fiercely with bamboo strips. They later pushed me upside down against a chair back, with my head on the seat, and my feet off the ground. They beat me so hard that blood oozed out of my pants...

“When fellow practitioners and I were sharing together on June 4th, 2001, we were all arrested. We refused to cooperate. Two fellow practitioners, Li Yinping and Wang Lanxiang, never submitted and were persecuted to death by Mao Dexing from the Shouguang Police Department. He took us to Xunji Town Police Station.

"They brought me in for interrogation, but I refused to answer. Police officer Wu Guanzheng picked up a broomstick and began striking me with brutal force. The stick broke in half. He was cursing me the whole time. We were later transferred to the detention center. We were not criminals and we refused to eat there. We refused to be interrogated and we held onto each other so they could not separate us or take us away. Flustered and exasperated, the guards hollered, 'Ask Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] to interrogate them.'”

After Ms. Li got out that time, she could no longer return home, lest she be persecuted. She became homeless. Her son was only 10 at the time. Her family was destroyed by the persecution. She was arrested for the last time on April 16th, 2002, in a rented home in Weifang, along with practitioner Zhang Faxiang. They began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Ms. Li was transferred to Shouguang Brainwashing Centre after 12 days, where she died on June 5th, 2002.

Note

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