Abuse Suffered by Ms. Liu Lijie from Jinan City

Name: Liu Lijie
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Jinan City, Shandong Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 31st, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: No. 1 Women's Forced Labour Camp in Jinan, Shandong Province
City: Jinan City
Province: Shandong Province
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, torture, sexual assault, detention

Ms. Liu Lijie, a practitioner from Jinan City, was arrested by the police in March 2009, when she was just about to drive to a court hearing for her brother-in-law, Zhang Xingwu. She was sentenced to a term of nine months in a forced labour camp. While there, she was subjected to beatings, torture, solitary confinement, forced labour, and other forms of mistreatment.

On March 31st, 2009, Ms. Liu Lijie, and her sister, Ms. Liu Pinjie, decided to go to the court hearing for their brother, professor Zhang Xingwu from the Jinan Institute of Education. As soon as they got into their car, a group of people rushed up and dragged Ms. Liu Pinjie out of the car and pushed her toward the family home. When they dragged Liu Lijie out of the vehicle, she said, “I don't live in your area. It is none of your business where I go. You have no right to interfere with my actions.” She managed to escape from the police and get to the courthouse.

At the courthouse there were uniformed and plainclothes police officers both inside and outside the building. Professor Zhang Xingwu's attorney was not allowed into the courtroom and was arguing with the police at the entrance to the courthouse. As a relative of professor Zhang's, Ms. Liu asked to attend the hearing, but she was also refused entry. Ms. Liu then used the opportunity to discuss the facts about Falun Gong with the guards and police at the courthouse entrance.

A large group of police officers and special agents surrounded her. She calmly said, “We Falun Gong practitioners are good people. We have committed no crimes, yet we have been arrested and sentenced. Those are illegal actions. This should be an open hearing. My sister spent tens of thousands of yuan¹ to hire an attorney, but he isn't allowed to enter the courtroom.”

She said, “Falun Gong is righteous and very good. Falun Gong elevates people's morals and character, and has miraculously cured illnesses. My daughter had cancer, and we didn't know what to do. She eventually recovered because she began practising Falun Gong.” At the time, her daughter stood beside her and said, “What my mum said is true.” A car then drove up and three plainclothes police officers jumped out and pushed Ms. Liu into the car. Practitioners Ms. Zhu Yuezhen and Ms. Miao Peihu were also forced into the car.

In the detention centre, Ms. Liu and Ms. Miao refused to wear the prisoner uniform, refused to respond during the interrogations, and refused to sign the sentencing forms for sending them to a forced labour camp. Fifteen days later, the three Falun Gong practitioners were taken to No. 1 Women's Forced Labour Camp in Jinan City.

Ms. Liu was severely mistreated there. While in the labour camp, she refused to wear the uniform, report to the prison guards, sit on the small bench, or admit that she was a criminal. Whenever the guards and some prisoners had the chance, they pushed her down and tried to force the uniform on her. During the process, the prison guard continuously cursed her and told different inmate monitors, who were all very cruel, to force her to put on the uniform. However, their efforts were in vain and Ms. Liu persisted in not wearing the uniform. On May 27th, 2009, four of the prison guards, including Zhang Yongmei, Xu Hong, and Ma Xiurong, tore off all of Ms. Liu's clothes and took them away. They said, “Just let her be naked since she refuses to wear the uniform.”

On December 20th, 2009, Ms. Liu wrote a solemn declaration to show her determination to uphold her faith. The declaration was taken away by a guard during a body search. The police then started to treat her even more harshly.

Policewoman Wang Yuyan called Ms. Liu to the office of the team leader at about 7:00 p.m. on December 21st, 2009. When Ms. Liu entered the office, team leader Sun Juan and policewoman Wang Xiaowan ran in and kicked Ms. Liu to the floor. They yelled viciously, “Squat down! Squat down!” Ms. Liu refused to squat, so they pulled her hair. They continuously pulled her hair, slapped her, and cursed at her using very dirty words until Ms. Liu had such intolerable pain in her skull that she had to squat down.

When they left the office, Ms. Liu found that thick patches of her hair had been pulled out. At that point, policewoman Wang Yunyan was on duty. When she saw that Ms. Liu was now squatting on the floor, she kicked Ms. Liu's left arm repeatedly. Wang Yunyan was wearing police-issue leather shoes, which are as heavy as boots. Ms. Liu's arm turned dark purple and she felt excruciating pain. She was forced to continue squatting until midnight the next day.

One inmate monitor didn't treat Ms. Liu harshly enough to satisfy the requirements of the police, so the police also beat the inmate and threatened her, “If you are too soft with her, don't even think about going back home!”

The inmate then not only beat Ms. Liu, but also persecuted her mentally. The inmate told Ms. Liu that her child was now controlled by the police, and that her relatives had died, as well as many other lies. At the same time, the labour camp forced Ms. Liu to do perform extended hours of hard labour.

When Ms. Liu's term was close to ending, the guards once again tried to force her to write the three statements. Policewomen Feng Sai and Sun Juan threatened Ms. Liu twice, “If you don't stop practising Falun Gong, you cannot leave the labour camp. You will be picked up by the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and imprisoned someplace. Your family will not be allowed to see you and they will not know where you are.” Despite all of this, Ms. Liu was not moved by their tricks.

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/2011/2/18/236467.html