An Elderly Practitioner Beaten and Tortured by Police in Sanhe City

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Rong, a retired teacher over 70 years old, is originally from Hunan Province. Before 1999, she moved to live in her sister's home in Sanhe City, Hebei Province.

On February 25th, 2008, while Ms. Li Rong was riding a tricycle with her sister, who is over 80 years old, they were followed by a car. When they were almost home, officers in the police car stopped them and arrested Ms. Li Rong. They took her to Sanhe Detention Centre in the police station. Around April 2nd, Ms. Li was taken back to her home town in Hunan Province.

According to reports, during her imprisonment, Ms. Li was interrogated by National Security personnel. In order to pressure her to compromise and betray fellow practitioners, the police tortured and beat her.

Before starting to cultivate Falun Gong, Ms. Li had many illnesses and was close to death. After she began cultivating, all her illnesses disappeared and her health recovered.

Since July 20th, 1999, Ms. Li has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party. She was sent to forced labour camps twice and imprisoned in Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp for over four years. After finishing a term of so-called "re-education through forced labour," she was put under "house arrest " in a senior citizens home in the countryside for about two years. Her retirement pension was withheld and she had no other no financial resources to cover her daily living expenses.

On February 4th, 2000, Ms. Li went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. As a result, she was imprisoned in Sanhe Detention Centre. Because police saw her doing the sitting meditation with six other Falun Gong practitioners, the former detention centre manager, Geng Desheng, and several guards rushed into the room, pulled the practitioners from their beds, and dragged them to the courtyard in their bare feet on the snow-covered ground, even as their hands were handcuffed behind their backs.

Guards Liu Hui, Ma Changcheng, and others used electric batons to strike the practitioners repeatedly until the batons ran out of power. After that, the guards imprisoned the practitioners in two empty rooms without a heat source and kept the windows opened to intentionally freeze. The guards stole all the money the practitioners had with them. Ms. Li was imprisoned for 45 days. After her family members were forced to hand over 2,300 yuan1, she was allowed to go home.

During her imprisonment at Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp, guards used large fire tongs to burn her mouth. [Fire tongs are used for picking up large honeycomb coal cylinders for stoves. These coal stoves are still in use by many families in China.] Guards stuffed a dirty rag into Ms. Li's mouth, resulting in the loosening of all her teeth and the loss of three of them.

Ms. Li was hung up by her handcuffs, shocked with electric batons, and beaten severely. After hanging by her handcuffs for a long time, she nearly suffocated and lost consciousness. Her left foot was kicked so brutally by the guards that it became twisted and deformed. Still, she was forced to sit on a small tiger bench2, forbidden to move all day, and shocked with an electric baton. During the months of torture, she was dragged outside and exposed to the burning sun during the summer and forced to stand outside in the freezing winter. The guards also used criminal inmates to try to stop her from practising Falun Gong and prevented her from studying Falun Gong articles. The inmates assigned to monitor and torture her would capriciously grab her head and strike it against solid objects, and punch and kick her anywhere on her body. She was beaten to near death.

Organizations and individuals who participated in the persecution of Ms. Li Rong (zip code 065200):

National Security Brigade of the Police Department in Sanhe City, Hebei Province:

Shi Liandong, head of the brigade, male, over 40 yeas old: 86-316-3115636 (home), 86-13803269588 (Mobile)
Detention Centre of Sanhe City: 86-316-3652991-8001
Meng Hongli, director of the detention centre;

Geng Desheng, former director of the detention centre: 86-316-3214260, 86-316-3122098 (Home), 86-13803224466 (Mobile)

Note

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

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/4/8/176040.html