Young Mother Subjected to Eight Years of Unlawful Imprisonment

Name: Yu Libo
Gender: Female
Age: 36
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 26th, 2001
Most recent place of detention: Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison in Harbin City
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, imprisonment, beatings, electric shock, force-feedings, interrogation

After suffering eight years of unlawful imprisonment, Ms. Yu Libo finally returned home on June 26th, 2009. Her son is now ten years old, and although he knows that Ms. Yu is his mother, he could hardly recognise her.

During the past eight years, due to persistence in her belief, Ms. Yu Libo was subjected to severe persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Her family could only visit her once a month. When her family planned to pick her up from prison, they were required to apply for a letter of recommendation from the local 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and court. Her family planned to send more people to pick up Ms. Yu, but the 610 Office sent three people to go with them, which allowed only Ms. Yu's father and son to go because the car could only accommodate five people. In addition, Ms. Yu's family had to pay for all the travel expenses, which totalled 260 yuan¹.

Ms. Yu Libo's husband, Dong Peng, was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment. He is still detained and persecuted at Hulan Prison. A family member said that he was bed-ridden. Although he has taken a turn for the better, his hair has turned grey despite his being in his thirties. Ms. Yu's father-in-law, who provided the main source of income for the family, passed away in May 2009.

Continuous Harassment and Monitoring

Due to the long-term detention and persecution at the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison, Ms. Yu Libo acquired many diseases, including nephritis and intestinal adhesion, and needs a quiet space to recover. However, the police department and neighbourhood committee have repeatedly sent people to harass her.

On June 27th, 2009, Pang Guoyi, then-head of the 610 Office (now chief of the police department's political security section), Yang Dali (now in the political security section), Ma Chunsheng (now in the political security section), along with nine people from the neighbourhood committee broke into the house of Ms. Yu's mother-in-law and started monitoring her. One of them said that if Ms. Yu Libo didn't give up practising Falun Gong, they wouldn't let her return home.

After about two weeks, three people, including Fan Xiaoguang (deputy head of the police department), went to harass Ms. Yu. In addition, officials from the neighbourhood committee again went to harass her. They said they would offer help if any help was needed, but when Ms. Yu Libo asked to apply for the minimum living guarantee, the secretary of the Tiedong Street Committee said that she had to first write a guarantee statement promising to no longer practice Falun Gong. Ms. Yu Libo steadfastly refused to do so.

During the past eight years, Ms. Yu Libo's son has lived a hard life with his grandparents. When Ms. Yu came back, officials continuously came to harass her, which brought further hardship for him. On July 15th, 2009, Ms. Yu Libo had just arrived at her mother's home in Jixian County, when officials from the Taiping Police Station came to harass her after they received notice from the Zhaodong City Police Department.

Arrested While Homeless

Ms. Yu Libo was born in 1973, and she started practising Falun Gong in 1996 while she was a student. After she graduated from college in 1997, she was hired by the former Huaxing Medicine Factory in Zhaodong City.

In 1999, when the CCP led by Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] started to persecute Falun Gong, Ms. Yu went to Beijing to appeal while she was five months pregnant. Ji Shifu and other officials from the Hongqi Police Station in Zhaodong City and the Zhaodong City Police Department arrested her, brought her back, and sent her to the Zhaodong City Detention Centre for nearly two months. Her parents and parents-in-law went to ask for her release. After officials extorted 1,000 yuan from them, Ms. Yu was released. Later, officials from the Zhaodong City Police Department, the local government, the local police station, and the street committee frequently went to harass her. They said that they may arrest her at anytime.

Around the New Year of 2001, after Zhu Yin was selected as mayor (now the president of the seventh commission of the Zhaodong City Political Consultative Committee), officials in Zhaodong City started to widely arrest practitioners. They also established policies implicating practitioners' family members. In mid-May 2001, Ms. Yu Libo was about to go to her mother's home. Ji Shifu made a call to her and got information about the time she would leave. Then, Ji Shifu and Dong Gang went to Jixian County. Later, the police department announced that they would arrest Ms. Yu anytime, even when she was still nursing her baby, which caused Ms. Yu to leave home.

On the evening of June 26th, 2001, Ms. Yu and Ms. Yang Ming from Daqing City went to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong to the local residential buildings. Officials from the Fendou Police Station severely beat them and then arrested them.

Cruel Persecution

At the Fendou Police Station, officers handcuffed her to the tiger bench² and severely beat her. Some officers used their fists and some used bottles filled with ice to hit her in the head. Others used electric batons to shock her. Ms. Yu Libo's face was disfigured from the torture. One policeman used a high-voltage electric baton to shock her, and another pressed an iron rod into her ankles for several hours, which caused her legs to swell up. Even six months later, there were still two black scars on her ankles.

The police continued their severe beatings for two days in an attempt to get information about where the Falun Gong materials came from, but Ms. Yu Libo never told them.

During this period, the Zhaodong City Television Station also took part in the persecution. Officials from the television station played a programme that Li Xingfu, head of the Fenjin Police Station, made to deceive local residents. Meanwhile, the police interrogated Ms. Yang Ming, arrested Ms. Liu Xiyang (from Qitaihe City), and confiscated her two printers.

During the first two weeks at the detention centre, Ms. Yu Libo suffered more than ten hours of interrogation every day. She was severely beaten and verbally abused every day. Ren Jiansheng (who now works at the Sinan Detention Centre), Liu Weizhong (now working at the Sinan Detention Centre), and Zhao Renwu (political security section) once brought Ms. Yu to the political security section to interrogate her. They severely beat her. In addition, she was paraded along the streets with death-row inmates.

In order to resist the persecution, Ms. Yu Libo started a hunger strike. Over ten days later, officials ordered prisoners to forcibly open her mouth and force-feed her. On one occasion, she spat up green bile. It is much more dangerous to force-feed through the mouth than through the nose, and Liu Xiaoling from Wuzhan Town passed away after force-feeding through the mouth. Wu Guozhi, head of the detention centre, is responsible for this decision.

Eight Years of Unlawful Imprisonment

Li Xingfu , one of the primary perpetrators, was promoted to be deputy head of the Zhaodong City Police Department. The police department set up a special investigation group, which consisted of Ren Jiansheng and Liu Weizhong. They forged evidence and gave Ms. Yu Libo eight years of imprisonment.

On December 9th, 2001, Ms. Yu was sent to the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison in Harbin City. In 2004, she was held in the women's infirmary. In 2006, she was transferred to the eleventh ward, which was called the "attacking hard ward" because the persecution there was most severe. As soon as Ms. Yu was sent there, prisoners checked her clothes to search for Falun Gong materials. They forced her to take off her clothes, leaving only her underpants. The women guards even searched inside her underpants.

The cells that housed practitioners limited their time for washing clothes or taking a bath to only fifteen minutes. During the hottest summer, practitioners couldn't finish washing their clothes in such a short time, and they had to leave before the detergent could be rinsed out. Officials there monitored practitioners constantly, even when they were using the restroom. If officials didn't succeed in stopping practitioners from practising Falun Gong, they would transfer practitioners to other prison sections.

On August 21st, 2007, Ms. Yu Libo's father-in-law and her son went to visit her. However, her son didn't recognise her because due to the persecution, she was emaciated. At that point, Ms. Yu Libo's large intestines were damaged to the point of sticking together, and she was sent to the hospital from prison. Three days later, when Ms. Yu's father-in-law and mother went to the prison to insist that she be released for medical treatment, officials lied to the family and said that she had already recovered.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/12/20/214717.html