The Relentless Abuse Mr. Li Min Suffered Before He Died as a Result of Torture

Mr. Li Min, a Falun Gong practitioner who worked in the Hulan District Finance Bureau in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005. While imprisoned, he was regularly tortured in Ward 7 of Daqing Prison, and his health deteriorated dramatically, causing symptoms of a stroke. In April 2009 his family members, who were there visiting him, asked that he be released for medical treatment, but the request was denied by the prison officials. Mr. Li died on May 23rd.

Mr. Li, 51, worked at the Finance Bureau in Hulan District. He began to practise Falun Gong in 1998, and his health, moral character, and family life improved. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, he was arrested and put in a forced labour camp several times. In January 2001, he was ordered to serve time in a forced labour camp for a year by the Political and Security Department of the Hulan Police Department, and was jailed in the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp.

On March 10th, 2005, when Mr. Li was at work at the Finance Bureau, Deputy Captain Lu Wenxue of the National Security Squadron of the Hulan District Police Department and others rushed into his office and arrested him. They also seized his mobile phone and house key. With key in hand and accompanied by a dozen other police officers (among them Zhang Yaobin of Division VI of the Harbin Police Department and Wang Zhongqi, the head of the Guangming Police Station), they stormed into Mr. Li's home. They arrested his wife, Du Xiuzhe,n and seized their computer, printer, Falun Gong books, and Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution, as well as four to five thousand yuan¹ in cash. The value of the items they took totaled over 20,000 yuan. After the arrest and seizure, officers Xu Xingwu, and Yan Tinghui from Hulan District National Security Squadron stayed behind for three more days, further ransacking and vandalizing Mr. Li's home.

A few hours after arresting Mr. Li and Ms. Du, they took them to a place where there was no sign or markings and entered through an iron gate. They handcuffed them in separate rooms and beat them. Mr. Li and his wife could hear each other's screams. Later they learned that they were in the so called Wuchang City "Transformation²" School (brainwashing centre). Fu Yanchun, the director, and four others--Yao Zhenshan, Zhu Xianfu, Han Guang, and Jing Ji--beat them non stop for 24 hours, causing bruising all over Mr. Li's body. Fu Yanchun was the most brutal of the bunch. During the session, he called people at the Harbin Police Department, telling them that Mr. Li had attempted to commit suicide three times. The reason that they beat Mr. Li was to interrogate him and to try to force him to write a repentance statement to renounce Falun Gong.

Mr. Li and his wife were held and tortured for five and half months at the "Transformation" School, where no sign identified the place as an official institution. Fu Yanchun and others tortured Mr. Li for an extended period of time to try to force him to produce the so-called confession statements. They used all sorts of underhanded tactics to pressure and deceive Mr. Li, telling him that he would be released as long as he followed the orders of the Harbin Police Department to confess and tell them what they wanted to know.

In fact, the Wuchang City "Transformation" School was where the following corrupt officers used to extort money from practitioners: Fu Yanchun and Zhang Yaobin of Division 4 of the Harbin Police Department; Qi Jiamin, the director of Harbin City 610 Office³; and Zhang Jinfeng, the head of the provincial 610 Office. Because Mr. Li worked at the Finance Bureau, they thought he must be rich, which led to the arrests of both Mr. Li and his wife and their subsequent persecution. Fu Yanchun often said to Mr. Li, "You can be released as long as you agree to pay."

Zhang Yaobin, Xing Jianwu, Wu Jian, and Li Shuxin from Division 4 of the Harbin Police Department visited the school in turn. Every time Zhang went, he pulled Mr. Li aside to talk with him privately. Actually what he did was to threaten and extort money from him. Qi Jiamin and Zhang Jinfeng went there twice. Both times they threatened and lied to Mr. Li, telling him that if he cooperated, they would help to get him released. The director, Fu Yanchun, called Mr. Li's son three times to tell him to go to the brainwashing centre and discuss how he should arrange to give money to Zhang Yaobin, Qi Jiamin, and others and told him their phone numbers. In the end, Mr. Li did not give in to their demands, so they turned him and his wife over to the District.

Mr. Li explained to Zhao Guohua of the District Attorney's Office and Magistrate Gong Shili of the Court in Hulan District, when they took over the case, that his confession was coerced through torture and was untrue and that they should re-investigate the matter. Of course they did not. They accepted the existing "evidence" and sentenced the couple to eight years in prison.

Mr. Li was put in the group discipline team in Hulan Prison in August 2005 and was later transferred to Ward 7 of Daqing Prison. He was persecuted brutally by Daqing police officer Chang Min. They shackled him even when he was near death from the torture. The family's request for Mr. Li's immediate release for medical treatment was denied by the prison officials.

Mr. Li was transferred to Daqing Hospital in mid May 2009, and he passed away around 8:00 p.m. on May 23rd, 2009. Yet another crime committed by the CCP against Falun Gong practitioners.

Personnel involved in persecuting Mr. Li:
Wei Qingzhi, Director, Hulan District 610 Office
Yu Tao, Chief, Hulan District Police Department: 86-451-57358008
Jiang Jimin, Deputy Chief, Hulan District Police Department
Li Weilong, the Political Division of Daqing Prison: 86-13936903441(Mobile)
Chang Ming, Deputy Captain, Ward 7 of Daqing Prison: 86-13936991999 (Mobile)

Zhang Jinfeng, Director of the 610 Office of Heilongjiang Province
Qi Jiamin, Director of the 610 Office of Harbin City
Zhang Yaobin, Xing Jianwu, Wu Jian, and Li Shuxin of Division 6, Harbin City Police Department
Fu Yanchun, Director, Wuchang City "Transformation" School
Yao Zhenshan, Zhu Xianfu, Han Guang, and Jing Ji, all participants in the persecution, from Wuchang City "Transformation" School

Note

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

2. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

3. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2009/6/2/107943.html