The Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioner Li Yuqui and His Family

Mr. Li Yukui, from Baoding City, Hebei Province, decided to leave home seven years ago and become homeless, to avoid the persecution. During this time, the police beat and detained his family members, trying to find out his hiding place. They beat his daughter in front of his wife and then beat his wife in front his daughter.

Mr. Li Yuqui, 56, is from the Shuiniantou Village in Jiezhuang County, Baoding City. He began Falun Gong practice because of health problems including high blood pressure and diabetes. His illnesses disappeared after he began practising. When the Chinese Communist regime launched the persecution, he went to Beijing to appeal, but was arrested and tortured.

Mr. Li was detained at a police station in Shunyi County, Beijing in 2001, where the agents tortured him severely. The following is his personal account.

"I refused to tell them where I was from. The police took off my shoes and handcuffed me in the yard, barefooted. My feet instantly became numb from the cold. At 11:00 that night, they un-cuffed me and took me to an abandoned garage where seven police officers tortured me. They handcuffed me backwards, hung me in the air by the handcuffs, and used several electric batons to simultaneously shock me on my back and on the soles of my feet. Then they lowered me to the floor, shackled me and shocked my back and the soles of my feet again. I screamed from the pain and my feet twitched and scraped between the shackles and the concrete floor, peeling off skin on my toes and exposing my bones. To stop me from screaming, they gagged me with a dirty garage rag full of oil and dust. I gradually lost conscious. As soon as I awoke, they hung me up again and repeated the abuse, and then repeated it a third time. I can't remember how many times I lost consciousness during the torture. I couldn't tolerate it any longer, so I told them my address. The next day they transferred me to the Shunyi Detention Centre. My face and body were covered in bruises."

Jiezhuang Township Police Station deputy head Guo Jian and other people, including Liu Tiecheng and Yan Baoxin from Shuiniantou Village, later picked up him and held him at the Baoding City Detention Centre for more than two months. During that time, Shuiniantou Village Party Branch head Yan Baoxin extorted 15,000 yuan¹ from Mr. Mr. Li's wife as a so-called "fine." Liu Zhiheng from the Jiezhuang Township police station also extorted her 5,000 yuan.

Later that year, when Liu Zhiheng arrested all the local practitioners and sent them to brainwashing centres and labour camps, Mr. Li decided to leave home and become homeless to avoid further persecution. From then on, Jiezhuang Township Police Station agents often harassed his family, and Mr. Li's mother eventually died from the terrifying pressure.

One day in September 2002, Liu Zhiheng and Guo Jian, along with Jiezhuang Township Police Station head Chen He, led a group of ten police officers to break into Mr. Li's home. They injured Mr. Li's son's head with a torch and bruised the eyes of his son's classmate who was visiting. The police snatched Mr. Li's daughter's cell phone and cash, handcuffed her, interrogated her and beat her. Liu Zhiheng stomped upon her and forced her to get underneath the chair, beat her back with a baton and slapped her face, while questioning, "Where is your dad?" He even humiliated her in front of all the people by shocking her in the back with an electric baton for a long time. Then he hit her with a rubber baton and didn't stop until he got tired. Her face was blue from the beating.

The police forced her mother to watch the entire scene. Policewoman Li Weiping sneered, "How cold-blooded your mother is! She didn't even say a word while watching you being beaten."

Then, in front of the daughter, Liu Zhiheng beat and kicked her mother. He forced her mother onto the couch and stomped on her chest with leather shoes, and slapped her face.

Liu Zhiheng then forced Mr. Li's son-in-law to the wall and stomped on his chest, which immediately caused him difficulty breathing, and then took him to the police station. He was released after he paid 3,000 yuan. Mr. Li's son-in-law had swollen bruises all over his body when he came back. But it still wasn't over. Liu Zhiheng then forced Mr. Li's daughter to clean the toilets and wash the windows in the police station.

Later, when Liu Zhiheng found out Mr. Li Yukui once lived in his niece's home, he took her to the police station. An older policeman interrogated her and beat her at the police station. Her body was covered with bruises. They extorted over 1,000 yuan from her.

The police held Mr. Li's family members at the Baoding Detention Centre for more than two months and didn't release them until they extorted about 2,000 yuan from each person. Jiezhuan Township Party Secretary Zhang expelled Mr. Li's wife from her job and placed her under house arrest.

Mr. Li made the choice to stay away from home for seven years, unable to be with his family for important events including his mother's funeral, his son and daughter's weddings, and his brother's funeral.

On the afternoon of July 17th, 2008, Jiezhuang Township Police Station agents once again arrested Mr. Li Yukui. They violently handcuffed and shackled him. Jiezhuang Township Police Station head Lu Hongjun later sent him to the Baoding City Detention Centre and then to the Baoding Forced Labour Camp. Mr. Li was kept at the Baoding Forced Labour Camp for more than two months.

None of the personal property that the police confiscated from Mr. Li's home, including a motorcycle and cash, have yet been returned.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/9/9/207961.html