Ms. Lui Demei Arrested and Tortured Again For Third Time

Name: Lui Demei 
Gender: Female
Age: unknown
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Retired from the Hebei Forestry Bureau in Heilongjiang Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 18th 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hebei Detention Centre 
City: Hebei
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, torture, and detention

Ms. Lui Demei has been repeatedly persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) due to persistently practising Falun Gong over the past few years. Her husband had to carry her out of the detention centre twice. On the morning of October 18th the police broke into her home and later arrested her. Her current status is unknown.

On the morning of October 18th when Ms. Lui was at home alone, a stranger came and asked her whether her husband was at home or not. She replied, “He isn’t at home.” The stranger then left. Ms. Lui felt it was strange so she went to a neighbour's home. The police then went to the neighbour's home and handcuffed Ms. Lui. They dragged her into a police vehicle and took her away. Her husband came home from work at 5:00 p.m. and saw that no one was home, but the door wasn’t locked either. A neighbour later told him what had happened to his wife. This was confirmed by someone that called and told him that his wife was in Hegang City, and then hung up.

Ms. Lui’s husband said, “Lui Demei can’t live if she stops practising Falun Gong because her diabetes is particularly serious.”

The following describes Ms. Lui's experiences with two arrests, detention, and torture to the point of being unable to walk. At the end of it all, she was carried out of the camp and detention centre by her husband.

On January 25th 2005, Ms. Lui explained the facts about Falun Gong to a person at her workplace in the Yuefeng Factory. The person reported her to the authorities and the police came and took her to the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). She was later sentenced to two years of forced labour and detained in the Xigemu Forced Labour Camp in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province.

In the Xigemu Forced Labour Camp, she was forced to do ten hours of labour every day. The labour involved sitting in a dark, cold workshop for a long time, where she was not allowed to move or talk. If she couldn't finish the task, she had to work overtime. The guards constantly beat and verbally abuse the practitioners every day. She was under intense mental and physical distress for a long time.

Ms. Lui’s health deteriorated in these circumstances, and as a result her diabetes returned. In addition, one side of her body became numb, and others had to support her when she walked. Despite this, the guards didn't allow her to lie down to rest. Instead, they ordered two to three people to take her to the workshop every day. Even if she couldn't do any labour they ordered her to sit on the cold bench all day, with her hands and feet freezing.

Hong Wei, the guard director, told people that she was pretending. The guards didn't allow her to have a medical exam until two days later after Hong Wei made this allegation. The results showed that her blood sugar level was as high as 18, which resulted her being partially paralyzed. Her illness was quite serious and in the end, she could not walk at all, even with support. She was so sick that she couldn't take care of herself. The hospital diagnosis suggested that she should have medical parole, but the labor camp authorities delayed it again and again. They didn't release her until her condition became even worse. They also extorted more than 10,000 yuan¹ from her family before allowing them to come get her. She was carried out of the labour camp by her husband.

At around 5:00 a.m. on July 21st 2009, the police broke into Ms. Lui’s home and arrested her again. They also ransacked her home and took the only TV and DVD players that her family had, along with Falun Gong materials. Director Liu Chao, deputy director Guo Shujun, head Wang Zhihai, and others from 610 Office all arrived at her home. They recorded the whole procedure while ransacking her home, and continuously played the video on Hebei Forestry Bureau Television for three days to attempt to threaten people and interfere with people learning the truth about Falun Gong.

The 610 Office agents and police department threatened Ms. Lui’s family members by saying that Ms. Lui would not be released unless the family paid first. Meanwhile, they forced her family to persuade her to give up practising Falun Gong. Ms. Lui firmly said to them, “There is nothing wrong with practising Falun Gong.” Therefore the police again took her to the detention centre.

Within only a few days, from July 21st to July 29th Ms. Lui was persecuted to the point of being unable to walk again, and needed two people to support her to go to the bathroom. The guards from the Hebei Detention Centre were afraid of being held responsible for Ms. Lui if she died there, so they took her to a hospital for a medical exam. The results showed that her blood sugar level was very high. She even had no feeling when the doctor scratched her feet. The agents from the 610 Office felt that Ms. Lui indeed was very ill so they extorted 5,000 yuan from her family before allowing them to take her home. Ms. Lui’s husband had to go many places to borrow money in order to obtain her release. Her husband once again carried her out of the detention centre.

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/2011/10/24/248266.html