Investigating the Death of Falun Gong Practitioner Zhao Wenyu

Zhao Wenyu was a Falun Gong practitioner in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. She had been arrested many times for clarifying the truth about Falun Gong and appealing. During detention, she suffered torture, brutal beatings and mental torment from coercive brainwashing. On February 3, 2004, when trying to escape illegal arrest by the police, she fell from a building. More than 20 days later, police in Shijiazhuang City ordered her family to come to the police station to identify her body. The police covered up the persecution facts and tried to avoid responsibility. The explanation they provided to the family has many loopholes. More details of her story follow:

Ms. Zhao was 32 years old. She started practising Falun Dafa in 1998 and enjoyed tremendous benefits both physically and spiritually. After July 20, 1999, when the persecution began, she went to Beijing four times to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested twice for her peaceful appeals. On May 12, 2000, she unfurled a banner reading "Falun Dafa is Great!" at Tiananmen Square. Police from the Tiananmen Police Station arrested her and held her for four days. On May 16, she was sent back to Shijiazhuang City. On the evening of that day, under direct orders from the head of the police station, four police officers brutally beat her. At the beginning, the head of the police station handcuffed her and trampled on the cuffs, making them cut deep into her wrists. This injury had not healed even after two years. Then, the police slapped her face with heavy blows. Afterwards the four young policemen took turns beating Zhao with a rubber tube, especially flogging her lower body. Zhao was rolling on the floor in great pain.

The police beat Zhao for two hours. They kept her handcuffed all this time, and her hands swelled. After the brutal torture, they forced her to sleep on a "bed" which consisted of two chairs pulled together. On the third day of detention, Zhao's family members visited her and brought her a meal. They saw that Zhao was covered with bruises from her waist down to her knees. She was held for 28 days and was forced to sleep on the two chairs every night. In the end, the police extorted 3,000 yuan from Zhao's family before they released her.

Her face was still distorted from beatings after she was released, and some people did not even recognize her. During the detention, the police forced her to betray her fellow practitioners. She was unable to get out of this shadow for a long time, and suffered great pains both physically and mentally.

Zhao and her husband were divorced before she started to practise Falun Gong. In September 2001, she went to clarify the truth to her ex-mother-in-law, who didn't know the true story of Falun Gong, and reported her to the police. Zhao was captured by police in Shijiazhuang City. At 11:00 p.m. that day, Zhao managed to unlock the handcuffs and escape while the police were drinking together. Since then, she had to leave her home and wander about to avoid further persecution.

In the horrific environment created by Jiang Zemin, where the police check rented properties and IDs, search and arrest practitioners, and monitor practitioners' movements, Zhao had to move many times. She drifted from one place to another, with no social interaction and she could not see any family members, or risk being arrested and persecuted further. The painful loneliness suffered by Falun Gong practitioners who were forced to become homeless is unimaginable for an everyday person. Even so, Zhao Wenyu put forth a lot of effort to help people understand the truth of the persecution of Falun Dafa.

On August 15, 2003, after Zhao had been away from home for almost two years, Deng Fang and other policemen in Shijiazhuang City arrested her again. The next day, the police searched through her dwelling and sent her to the brainwashing class. After 20 days, Zhao was transferred to the Second Detention Centre of Shijiazhuang City. Because Zhao had scabies from the mistreatment she received, the detention centre refused to take her, and she was therefore sent back to the brainwashing class. On the evening of the third day, Zhao successfully escaped when the guards were chatting.

After that, secret agents from the Public Security and National Security in Shijiazhuang City tried very hard to track her down. Zhao's family members often got harassing calls from the police, and the police also forced Zhao's non-practitioner family members to give them a photo of Zhao. During that time, Zhao once encountered a policeman from Xinhua District Police Department, named Guo Shixian, who was in charge of the search and arrest of her.

On February 3, 2004, Zhao and Liu Liqun were surrounded by a group of policemen at their apartment. Police ordered the administrative staff in the residential community to check whether Zhao and Liu were at home. As soon as the staff left their apartment, the police immediately knocked at the door. Zhao and Liu refused to open the door and were forced to get out of the apartment through a window on the balcony. They slid down the gutter pipe. Liu fell from the third floor, fracturing bones in her back. Zhao fell from the fifth floor. Liu held out her arms to get Zhao when Zhao fell down and tried to help buffer the fall before she hit the ground. Obviously, Liu was still conscious and clear minded at that moment.

The two practitioners were arrested by police. Other practitioners were able to reach them at around 10:55 a.m. that day. By 12:20 p.m., no one knew their whereabouts. Therefore, they must have been arrested between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Twenty-two days later, Yuqiang Police Station ordered Zhao's family to come to the station and identify Zhao's body. Zhao's family found that the left upper part of Zhao's forehead was bashed in flat, and the left side of her nose had signs of gore and appeared purple. In addition, from the chest down along her left breast, there was a line of stitches in the shape of a semicircle. The police claimed it was for heart massage when Zhao was receiving emergency treatment.

According to the Zhuoda residential community, news of the incident was tightly blacked out. Shijiazhuang City Police Department and Yuhua Police Department were obviously trying to escape responsibility. They tried to cover up the facts that the death was due to their illegal arrest, and that the two practitioners were forced to escape and thus fell from the building.

A police officer by the name Li Jun claimed that after Zhao fell to the ground, they sent her to a hospital for emergency treatment lasting more than one hour. Zhao allegedly needed surgery, which required a signature from her family members. The police didn't know where to find her family members and signed in their place. The emergency treatment didn't save Zhao's life. The police then put her body in a mortuary.

As for why they waited more than 20 days to inform her family, Li Jun shirked their responsibility by saying that Liu Liqun told them Zhao's pseudonym 'Zhao Ningning,' and therefore they had not been able to identify her until they opened their apartment door and saw many Falun Gong materials, and only then did they realize that the dead person was a Falun Gong practitioner, and found out she was in fact Zhao Wenyu.

The following are questionable points: 1) Why did it take over 20 days to open the apartment door in such a significant death case? 2) Zhao had been illegally imprisoned many times by the police. She had even escaped twice, and had been well known by the local police station, the local police department, the political security authorities, the 610 Office, and other agencies. Not long before the incident, Xinhua Police Department had demanded a photo of her from her family. Zhao had been a key target of their widespread search for Falun Gong practitioners who had been forced to become homeless. All branches and local police stations of Shijiazhuang City should have had her photo. 3) How can they explain the fact that shortly before the incident Xinhua District Police Department stated that they had received a clue about where to find Zhao?

Why did police delay more than 20 days before notifying her family, and what had actually happened during this period? When the family members requested to meet Liu Liqun to verify the facts, the police flatly refused. After Liu was released on bail for medical treatment, she was under tight police monitoring the entire time. When she recovered from the injuries and returned to work on November 11, 2004, she was again abducted by the police, and is imprisoned in the First Detention Centre of Xingtai City to this day.

In any case, Zhao's death is another atrocity committed by Jiang Zemin's hoodlum terrorist group in their persecution of Falun Gong. Yuhua Police Department of Shijiazhuang and Yuqiang Police Station are directly responsible for Zhao's persecution. Those who have persecuted Zhao cannot evade their responsibilities.

Primary responsible parties:
(Dial country code + area code 86-311 before all numbers below except mobile phones):

Yuhua District Police Department in Shijiazhuang City:
Deputy Chief, Li Jun, specially assigned to persecute Falun Gong, 6122610 (Office), 3659948 (Home), BP: 96777-2678
Yuqiang Police Station: Du, 86-139091001338 (mobile), 8881338 (mobile)
Yuqiang Police Station, 5892290
The above two are directly responsible.

Xinhua District Police Department in Shijiazhuang
Guo Shixian: 86-13091007159 (mobile)
Zhai: 86-1308114867 (mobile)
(These two people were in charge of hunting down and arresting Zhao Wenyu all along)

Xinhua District Police Department:
Address: West Hua'an Street, Shijiazhuang City; Telephone: 7032041, 7022044, 7016635, 7024102, 7027823, 7870830, 7027453, 7022787, 7025427, and 7027039

Yuhua District Police Department in Shijiazhuang
Police Chief: Li Xinle, 6129181 (Office), 7058268 (Home), 86-13503112599 (Cell)
Chief of the Procuratorate Office: Yang Guang, 5815128 (Office), 6063626 (Home), 86-13832360188 (Cell)
Head of the 610 Office: Jiao Hongguang, 5899625 (Office), 3058026 (Home), 86-13933156368 (Cell)

The Political Security Team, Shijiazhuang:
Deng Fang, 7024404 (Home), 7026911 ext. 4362 (Office)

Shijiazhuang City Police Department: 7026911 (Office)
Address: 83 Minzu Road, Shijiazhuang, zip code: 050000
Deputy Chief, Zhang Shiyu, specially assigned to persecute Falun Gong: 7026911 ext. 3828 (Office)
Chief's Office: 7026911 ext. 3001
Deputy Chiefs' Office: 7026911 ext. 3352, 3731, 3006, 3859, 3735, 3895, 3820, 3893, and 3890
Duty Office, 7023296

Shijiazhuang City 610 Offices,
Director: Liang Jianbin: 6686716
Deputy Directors: Lv Junying, 6686706; Han Xinmin, 6686708
Duty Office: 6686701
Secretariat Division: Cao Yongjun, 6686709, Du Jingbo, 6686712
Comprehensive Management Division: Wang Cun, 6686718; Li Dongju, 6686711
Supervising Division: Wang Pu, 6686715; Yuan Lixin, 6686703

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/12/20/91843.html