Elderly Ms. Tang Liwen Brought to Trial by Inner Mongolia Court

A Falun Gong practitioner from Tonglia City in Inner Mongolia who has been detained for eight months at the Hexi Detention Centre was brought to trial by the Inner Mongolia Tonglia Court. Those familiar with her situation have said that during her detention she was taken to the hospital against her will to be force-fed and was injected with unknown drugs.

Ms. Tang Liwen, 68, started practising Falun Gong in 1998. Before that time she had rheumatism, serious stomach atrophy and breast cancer. After she stated practising Falun Gong her diseases disappeared, including her breast cancer. During surgery she underwent before practising Falun Gong, a doctor from Tianjin Tumour Hospital diagnosed the cancer to be in the final stage. That doctor keeps in touch with Ms. Tang by writing her a letter once a year to see how she is doing. In one of the letters the doctor wrote that Ms. Tang was the only person he knew to survive that stage of the cancer.

After Ms. Tang had the operation, she learned many exercises at her local elderly people's activities centre, but none helped her illness. Both of her hands became deformed from rheumatism. Later, she learned about Falun Gong and in a short period of time her illnesses and bodily pain totally disappeared. Members of her family were also relieved and they all went on to become practitioners.

In 1999, during the persecution, Ms. Tang and other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal to the government about Falun Gong. That same year she was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp. When she was released in 2001, she was arrested again and her home was ransacked five times by local police. All of her personal belongings were confiscated. Ms. Tang was subjected to all kinds of cruel torture at the prison where she was held. She was once tied to a "death bed¹" for nine days. After shouting, "Falun Gong is great," she was beaten until her teeth were broken and her hair was pulled out. After she had been on a hunger and water strike for nine days, the authorities were afraid of being held responsible for her condition so they ordered her family to take her home.

Ms. Tang was reported for handing out materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in January 2008. A total of twenty people, including officers from Keermi Police Bureau, went to arrest her. They also confiscated all of the valuable items in her home, including a computer, printer, CD writer, bank deposits and cash. The officers didn't even leave her with her daily necessities. Currently Ms. Tang is detained at Tongliao City Hexi Detention Centre. She has been detained for more than eight months and her family is not allowed to visit her.

Ke District Court representatives informed her family that she would be brought to trial on the afternoon of August 21st. On that day her family and relatives waited outside the court for the trial to commence, but representatives of the court didn't allow her family and relatives to enter the court. Not until after 4:00 p.m. did the court representatives let them know that they had decided to hold the trial at the Hexi Detention Centre due to Ms. Tang's poor health. The representatives also threatened that if her family was to stir up trouble, it would be in vain.

At the opening of the trial at the detention centre, Ms. Tang was reported to have shouted loudly, "Falun Gong is great!" Police officers said to her family, "This elderly lady is very stubborn. She is near death and she is still shouting, 'Falun Gong is great!'"

Ms. Tang has been detained for more than eight months. Her family members have travelled to and from many departments asking for her release. Her husband, 78 years old, is under surveillance and monitored by police officers. People from the local community management committee and the police station have taken turns going into his home to harass him, which has made it very difficult for him to live a normal life.

Note

1. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

People primarily responsible for persecuting Ms. Tang:
Guo Zhijun, State Security Bureau: 86-13848538685
Qi Yongquan: 86-13847518888 (Mobile)