Falun Gong Practitioner Liao Yuanmei from Huaihua, Hunan Province Passes Away--Cause of Death Under Investigation

Name: Liao Yuanmei
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Huaihua City, Hunan Province
Occupation: Retired worker
Date of Death: January, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 17th, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp in Zhuzhou
City: Zhuzhou
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, electric shock, forced labour reform, beatings, force-feedings, forced injections, drug administration, brainwashing, extortion, long-term standing.

Liao Yuanmei, a retired worker from Huaihua City Railway Department, South Division in Hunan Province, was arrested and persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) many times since the persecution started. Her family had hatred towards her because they believed the CCP propaganda that slandered Falun Gong. In January 2011, Liao Yuanmei’s bloody body was found near her apartment. Liao Yuanmei’s relatives and her fellow practitioners are looking for the cause of her death.

In 2008 when she was in a forced labour camp, Liao Yuanmei was tied up, force fed, beaten and injected with unknown medications.

In the second half of October 2010, Liao Yuanmei was arrested by officers from the Huaihua Railway Police Department, 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and Security Bureau. She was then sent to a brainwashing centre, and had 10,000 yuan¹ extorted from her. After she was released from the brainwashing centre, her family, because they believed the CCP lies, had negative feelings toward her.

A day before Liao Yuanmei died, she went to a practitioner’s apartment. She told the practitioner that her family hated her, and she was afraid to go home. Her Falun Gong books were thrown away by her family, so she kept her last Falun Gong book in that practitioner’s apartment. The next day, she died tragically outside her apartment. Right after her body was found, someone called the police. The police went to her apartment and found her husband still wearing pajamas. Liao Yuanmei, her husband, her daughter and her son-in-law all lived in the same apartment. Her relatives and fellow practitioners went to talk to her husband, her daughter and son-in-law, hoping to find out the truth but they all avoided seeing them.

Liao Yuanmei’s relatives and fellow practitioners are trying to find a lawyer for the case.

Brief Summary of the Persecution that Liao Yuanmei Endured:

In October 1999 and February 2000, Liao Yuanmei went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was detained for a total of 15 days. The third time that she went to Beijing to appeal, she was held in a detention center in a nearby county. She was then transferred to another detention centre in Tianjin. There, the guards shocked her with electric batons. When representatives from her workplace and the 610 Office went to pick her up, they demanded 1,000 yuan. She was put in a local detention centre and was later detained in her own apartment. She was later sentenced to one year of forced labour.

In August 2008, her workplace held a meeting to slander Falun Gong, and tricked her into attending. Liao Yuanmei shouted in that meeting, “Falun Gong is good! Falun Gong is righteous!” Because of this, she was arrested again. She held a hunger strike and was eventually released.

On September 28th, 2008, agents from the 610 Officer came to her work, and they arrested her and took her to “Guangzhou Law Education School,” which is actually a brainwashing centre. She protested by conducting a hunger strike, so they force-fed her. At one point, four people beat her and threatened to sentence her. When Liao Yuanmei lost consciousness, they injected her with four doses of unknown drugs. After one year of being detained, Liao Yuanmei’s weight dropped from 127 lb. to 77 lb. She was unrecognizable to those that knew her.

On the evening of August 27th, 2004, Liao Yuanmei and another practitioner were arrested when they were discussing the facts about Falun Gong with people. They were detained for several days before being released.

Every time she recited Falun Gong articles or did the exercises while in the forced labour camp, Liao Yuanmei was punished by being forced to stand up for days on end. She was shocked with electric batons, and her front teeth were broken during the forced feedings.

On April 17th, 2008, Liao Yuanmei and two other practitioners (Yin Qiuyang and Yin Lanying) were reported by Li Wenbing and Zeng Yu while they were explaining the facts about Falun Gong, and were arrested by officers from the Hutian Police Station. On May 16th, they were officially charged. On August 6th, the their trial began, and on August 28th, they were sentenced to four more months. Her family had 40,000 yuan extorted from them by the 610 Office. Then Hecheng District Court changed Liao Yuanmei’s sentence to one year of forced labour. She served this sentence at Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp in Zhuzhou.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/3/1/235656.html