Community Up In Arms at Unwarranted Torture and Death of Much-Loved Female Practitioner

37 year old Dafa practitioner Mrs Liu Jie, was a resident of Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province. She was an employee of Shuangcheng Brewery and started practising Falun Gong in 1996.

On February 6, 2003, while Ms. Liu was distributing New Year's greeting cards along with pamphlets about "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," some misinformed people contacted the police. A policeman, whose last name is Dong and is from the National Security Section of the Shuangcheng City Police Department, along with other police, arrested Mrs. Liu and her husband, who is not a Falun Gong practitioner. After learning of Liu Jie and her husband's arrest, Ms. Liu's mother-in-law lost her sight due to the anxiety. To make matters worse, her father-in-law has been paralysed for many years, and her son is under-age, and had no one to look after him. On February 7th, the Shuangcheng City Police Department extorted 1,000 Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China] for the so-called "bail." They also extorted other expenses amounting to about 500 Yuan. After this, they released her husband. However, Ms. Liu was still illegally detained in Shuangcheng City Second Detention Centre. When her family members went to visit her, the policemen rejected their visit and asked for an additional 100 Yuan. At that time, Ms. Liu was on a hunger strike, and her family was not aware of it. Wanting to see her, her family paid the 100 Yuan. But the despicable policemen took the money for their personal use. On the morning of February 8th, from the second floor of the detention centre, somebody heard the sounds of interrogation, scolding, and beatings. They heard the police shouting and a woman's weak cries. It was Liu Jie who was being tortured and interrogated about the source of the New Year's greeting cards and pamphlets.

At around 8 p.m. on February 17, 2003, the Shuangcheng City Police Department and the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre notified Liu Jie's family that she had died at 4 p.m. that same day. They also said the cause of her death was unknown. Since the police department and the detention centre strictly block information regarding the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, the police forbade Ms. Liu's family members from seeing her body. The cause of Ms. Liu's death is being investigated. We will continue reporting Liu Jie's case.

It wasn't until 5 p.m. on February 20, 2003 that the police allowed Liu Jie's family to see her body. Ms. Liu's mouth was wide open, her clothes were disheveled, and her feet were bare. Her body was in a horrid condition; it was too much for others to witness. Without knowing, no one would believe it was Ms. Liu herself. It seemed that her opened mouth was telling people many things.

While being illegally detained, Liu Jie and her husband's personal car, cellular phone, notebook computer, and other things were forcibly and illegally held. After Ms. Liu's death by torture, the police were afraid that her family members' appeal would expose their vicious behaviour, so they promised to return her personal belongings. At the same time however, the police threatened Ms. Liu's family members and quickly cremated her body. To conceal their evil deeds, the police prohibited other people from witnessing the cremation. After it was over, Ms. Liu's family members were forced, against their will, to sign an agreement that stated, "we did not request an autopsy."

Everyone who knows Liu Jie, from the community to her work unit, from neighbours to family members, all respected her character very much. She gave presents to her parents-in-law, and meticulously took care of her father-in-law, who had been paralysed for many years. She was a kind daughter-in-law with high virtue. Her father-in-law always used to tell people, "I'm really blessed in this life, since I have a very nice daughter-in-law. My wife has taken very good care of me. But my daughter-in-law looks after me even more." He was not aware that Ms. Liu had been tortured to death. All the family members were hiding the truth about Liu's death from him in order to prevent the blow of learning the truth. Everybody said that Liu gave presents to elders, brought up the young son, and got along with her husband very well. She was a virtuous person. All of these had been achieved because she practised Falun Gong and had always conducted her behaviour well as a practitioner.

However, within those ten short days, Liu Jie had been tortured to death in the detention centre. Everyone who knew Liu Jie was left in such deep sorrow.

Dafa practitioner Liu Jie's death from torture caused strong reactions in Shuangcheng City. People all expressed their indignation and condemned the vicious police in Shuangcheng Police Department and Shuangcheng City Detention Centre. In unison, the voice of the people declared, "The evil policemen have lost their humanity and killed good people." The residents living in the same building with Mrs. Liu were all shocked by the news and shed tears of sorrow. Mrs. Liu's neighbours and other people packed the bus and went to the detention centre. They condemned the police, saying, "What business is it of yours that she practises Falun Gong to be a good person. What kind of crime is that? How could you resort to such violent treachery upon her? You have no humanity in your hearts and you murdered her." "We civilians are not afraid of you. What kind of charges can you use to accuse us?" None of the policemen dared to say a word and they all hid away. When they went to Mrs. Liu's home, the elder man who was guarding the gate stopped them and said angrily, "What are you doing here? You have persecuted the good person here to death. Why do you still want to harass her family?" They showed their ID and said, "We are on official duty." The elder man said, "I know you are from the police department. You have persecuted a good person to death. What kind of official duty are you on? You cannot come in. I don't care who you are." Later, the police were afraid of more angry people coming from the neighbourhood and quickly left.

In the work unit, community, and other places, all people condemned the police's vicious crimes. Some people said angrily, "They have taken you innocent Falun Gong practitioners into prisons, sentenced you to jail terms, extorted huge fines from you, confiscated your homes, even tortured you and beat you to death or inflicted other injuries. But you still don't fight back. This is truly incredible. If we were you, we would not be able to do that. Corrupt authorities like Zhang Gangfu and Jin Wanzhi from the "610 Office" [a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches] madly persecuted you and did so many bad deeds against Falun Gong practitioners. Now Jiang Zemin is crazy and assigned all those bad people to deal with you." Facing people's anger and condemnation, people such as Zhang Guofu and Jin Wanzhi from the "610 Office" were afraid of appearing in the public and they just hid.

Due to the persecution, practitioner Liu Jie's family was left heart-broken. Solid evidence proved that the vicious followers of Jiang's Political Gang in Shuangcheng murdered another Dafa practitioner. She was the 10th practitioner murdered in Shuangcheng City following Zhou Zhichang, Zhang Shengfan, Zhao Yayun, Wang Jin'guo, Wang Xiulan, Zhang Tao, Wu Baowang, and Zang Dianlong.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/3/24/47024.html