Ms. Song Caihong Dies after Severe Beatings in Detention

Name: Song Caihong
Gender: Female
Age: 41
Address: Zhaojiawan Village, Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: January 15th, 2012
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 30th, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Huludao City Detention Centre
City: Xingcheng
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, forced labour, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, physical restraint, interrogation, detention

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Song Caihong from Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province was severely beaten by police officer Zhang Lijun. She died on January 15th at the age of 41. Prior to this latest experience of persecution, Ms. Song was subjected to brutal torture in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp for three years. She was later sentenced to five years in prison at the Liaoning Province Women's Prison.

Ms. Song Died from Severe Beatings

On December 30th, 2011, Ms. Song Caihong was reported while handing out calendars that contained information exposing the persecution and she was arrested by officers from the Diaoyutai Police Station. At the police station, Zhang Lijun, an officer from the Xingcheng Domestic Security Team, beat Ms. Song so severely that she vomited blood. She was taken to the Huludao Detention Centre that night.

The beating damaged Ms. Song's stomach, after which she was unable to eat. She became emaciated in just a few days. Officer Zhang Lijun created a fabricated document and attempted to put her fingerprint on it. When Ms. Song refused to let them have her fingerprint, Zhang and several other officers severely beat her again.

After Ms. Song's family learned about her situation, family members and two officers took her to Huludao Hospital for a physical exam. After the initial checkup, the doctor said that Ms. Song's situation was critical and that she should be hospitalised immediately. The doctor ordered tests in preparation for a more comprehensive examination. However, the officers refused to allow Ms. Song to be hospitalised or to have the tests done, and they instead returned her to the detention centre.

Two days later, Ms. Song's family was notified that they needed to pick her up from the detention centre. When they arrived, they found that she was unconscious. The family took Ms. Song to the Xingcheng Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her as having acute uraemia (kidney failure due to injury) and stated that she needed to undergo dialysis. During this time, Ms. Song was in and out of consciousness. On January 15th, Ms. Song died in the Internal Medicine Kidney Ward of the No. 313 Hospital.

In order to cover up their responsibility for Ms. Song's death, the police officers from the Xingcheng Domestic Security Team claimed that the uraemia resulted from Ms. Song having staged a hunger strike.

Subjected to Brutal Torture in Forced Labour Camp and Prison

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its suppression of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Ms. Song Caihong has been arrested and detained multiple times.

On July 20th, 1999, Ms. Song went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong, and she was detained at the local detention centre. She was shackled and handcuffed after she performed the Falun Gong exercises. She was released three months later on October 10th.

On October 13th, 1999, Ms. Song was taken to the detention centre after she did the Falun Gong exercises in Dongshan Stadium. On October 31st, she was sentenced to three years of forced labour in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, where she was also subjected to brutal torture. Ms. Song was locked in a small cell during two successive Chinese New Years. Her hands and feet were bound to iron rings, in a posture in which she was unable to move. Her feet were lacerated by the shackles, and she had bruises all over her body from frequent beatings.

Ms. Song's three-year term was set to end in October of 2002. However, on August 22nd, 2002, the Shenyang City Intermediate People's Court and the Shenyang City Prosecutor's Office sent officials to Masanjia where they held a show trial. Three Falun Gong practitioners were tried that day: Ms. Song Caihong, Ms. Li Liming, and Ms. Li Dongqing. During the trial, the three practitioners shouted together "Falun Gong is good!" The guards immediately began beating them. Su Jing, director of the labour camp, was witnessed shouting during the trial, "Increase the term to seven years!" No prison guards spoke in reaction, and silence followed. Practitioners present shouted, “Falun Gong is good!” and “Cultivation is not a crime!” In reaction to this demonstration, the guards pulled the practitioners' hair, covered their mouths, and punched and kicked them before pulling them away. The practitioners were thrown into a confinement room on the first floor, with duct tape over their mouths. The three women on trial were each given an additional three to six months in prison.

Ms. Song Caihong was sentenced to five years in prison. She was detained at the Shenyang City Detention Centre for over a month, then transferred to the Liaoning Province Women's Prison. At Liaoning Prison, she was subjected to beatings, verbal abuse, and torture including being shocked with electric batons.

It is alleged that while in the detention centre, Ms. Song was forced to sit on a tiger bench¹, which caused her legs to swell badly. She was suffocated under a blanket, routinely beaten, and the guards injected her with drugs that caused sleepiness. Ms. Song was tortured with many more methods while in the prison.

Xingcheng City Police Department: +86-429-5152998
Xu Feng, personnel of the Xingcheng City Detention Centre: +86-13804292796 (Mobile)

Note

1. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2012/1/17/251921.html