Female Practitioner Sentenced to 16 Years After Enduring Severe, Prolonged Torture in Shenyang City

Falun Gong practitioner Li Weixun, female, from Shenyang City, was kidnapped by the police around early January 2002. During her detainment, Li Weixun bore extremely brutal and inhumane torture. The police violently and fiercely hit her legs with an iron rod, then covered her head with a sealed motorcycle helmet and inserted a lit cigarette through the vent to force her to breathe smoke and overheat her. They handcuffed her to a chair from the back and covered her mouth and nose with a thin plastic film. Li Weixun was repeatedly tortured and was nearly suffocated many times. The police additionally tortured her by pouring cold water onto her body when temperatures were below -20 0C [about --2 0F] and locked her outside to freeze.

Li Weixun was also forced and punished to stand in a torturous posture that is very hard for the human body to maintain for a long time and police did not allow her to sleep for many days in a row. One policeman from Tiexi District Police Department also malignantly said, "Today, we are here to punish and torture you, and it is OK to even kill you!" However, Li Weixun persisted in clarifying the truth to the police. She was arrested by the procurator's illegal authorization on January 19, 2002, and was imprisoned in Shenyang City Detention Centre.

During the detention for the preliminary hearing period in the detention centre, after Li Weixun had been abusively tortured and mistreated over a long period of time, she could not move any of her limbs, could not speak and was unable to eat. In the end, she was almost suffocated and nearly died. Due to her family's continuing rescue efforts using all possible means, she was able to conditionally leave the detention centre with the guarantee from Shenyang City "610" Office [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems] to receive medical treatment on March 19, 2002.

She received emergency treatment by the No.1 Hospital of China Medical University. During her stay at the hospital, four police watched over her 24 hours a day. She kept righteous thoughts in her mind, and she was able to succeed in escaping from the dangerous situation with the help of other Falun Gong practitioners. Then, Shenyang City authorities unexpectedly carried out a so-called internal trial to sentence Li Weixun to 16 years of imprisonment when she was not present.