Heilongjiang Province Couple Die from Police Brutal Beatings

42-year-old Ms. Yuan Hezhen was a practitioner from Hua-Nan County, Heilongjiang Province. She worked for Hua-Nan Forest Bureau, a branch of Heilongjiang Forestry. In January 2000, Hua-Nan County police arrested a large number of Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Yuan Hezhen and her husband practised and benefited from Falun Gong. The couple went to Beijing appeal against the outlawing of Falun Gong. In May 2000, Ms. Yuan was arrested in Beijing and sent to a detention centre. She went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal treatment. For this, she was brutally beaten, handcuffed in a painful posture and forced-fed. Ms. Yuan was tortured until she vomited blood, had bloody stools and became extremely weak. Eventually she walked out from the detention centre. Because of her severe injuries while in police custody and her unstable living conditions (Ms. Yuan was forced to live on the streets to avoid further persecution), Ms. Yuan's health deteriorated quickly. In July 2003, she passed away.

On the night of September 25, 2002, Mr. Sun Jihong, husband of Ms. Yuan Hezhen, was arrested at Yuquanying Multi Level Cross Roads in Fengtai District of Beijing. On September 29, Mr. Sun was savagely beaten to death while in police custody. On October 2, police secretly and illegally cremated his body.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/10/16/58885.html