Elderly Ms. Song Yaqin Dies as a Result of Persecution

Name: Song Yaqin
Gender: Female
Age: 77
Address: Yanji City, Jilin Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: July 18th, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Summer of 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wenmiao Police Station in Changyi District, Jilin City
City: Yanji
Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Brainwashing, beatings, extortion, handcuffed and hung up, physical restraint, home ransacked

Ms. Song Yaqin from Jilin City, Jilin Province, began practising Falun Gong in 1998. She gained spiritual and physical benefits from the practice, including recovery from arthritis. She then suffered a decade-long persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for her belief since 1999, leading to her death on July 18th, 2010.

Ms. Song and another elderly practitioner explained the facts about Falun Gong to a taxi driver on their way to see the Procuratorate to request the release of Ms. Song's son on July 10th, 2009. The driver reported them to the police, and six officers stopped the taxi, dragged Ms. Song out and forced her to lie on the ground. They also slapped the other elderly practitioner and forced them to kneel down and then stand for a long time.

Beaten for Trying to Help Her Son

In 2009, Ms. Song Yaqin visited the Helong City Police Department to request the release of her injured son. The police refused to release him. They pushed her down, dragged her down the stairs, and violently beat her. After that and up until her death, Ms. Song suffered from incontinence and her health weakened day by day.

Prior Accounts of the Persecution

After the persecution began in July 1999, Ms. Song went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong many times. On October 18th, 2000, plainclothes policemen from the Qianmen Police Station brutally beat her at Tiananmen Square, so that she sustained injuries over her whole body, including her face. Thereafter, officers threw her out from the back gate, fearing that others would see how they had injured her.

Ms. Song went to Tiananmen Square again in 2001 and performed Falun Gong exercises there with other elderly practitioners. Several young officers violently beat them, arrested them and then sent them to the Shijingshan District Detention Centre. When officers found out that Ms. Song was from Jilin Province, they arranged for the local police to pick her up and forced her to go through brainwashing. Thereafter, the local police and officials constantly harassed her at home.

Ms. Song was arrested again while she handed out Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution in the Wenmiao Market in the summer of 2002. Officers handcuffed her hands, brutally beat her and hung her up by the handcuffs, causing the metal to cut deeply into her flesh, leaving a permanent scar on her wrists.

Family Members Also Persecuted

Ms. Song's eldest daughter Shen Shuhua, 47, lived in the Ruyi Alley, Xindihao Community, Changyi District, Jilin City. Because she and her son had gone to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, they were forced by the local police to undergo brainwashing in August 1999. In September 1999, Ms. Shen was arrested by officers from the Xindihao Police Station and detained in the Jilin City Third Detention Centre. During her detention, she suffered a mental collapse. In June 2000, she was forced to clean the windows of buildings along the street. When she went to retrieve the water pan that she had left behind on June 25th, 2000, she fell from the building to her death. The cause of her fall is unclear. (For more information, see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/3/26/33821.html)

Ms. Shen's son and Ms. Song's grandson Shi Wenbo, born on May 1st, 1981, was forced to leave his hometown due to constant harassment and monitoring by the local police. When he went to Tiananmen Square to peacefully appeal for justice for Falun Gong in 2000, police violently beat him on the head with a baton. He was also arrested twice while passing out Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution in Beijing, leading to his detention in Chaoyang District Detention Centre. He went on a hunger strike to protest the detention and abuse. During his detention, he was locked by a dog chain and unable to walk, shocked with electric batons by the guards, tied up on a wooden cross and force-fed, not allowed to use the toilet, and placed in the snow in his underwear. He was subsequently transferred to the Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp. In 2003, he and his second uncle Shen Quanhui were also arrested by officers from the Changchunlu Police Station in Chuanying District, Jilin City.

Ms. Song's son Shen Quanhui was arrested and detained multiple times and forced to go through brainwashing. He was subjected to forced labor in the Jilin City Huanxiling Labour Camp and the Yinmahe Forced Labour Camp.

Mr. Shen and his wife Li Fengyun were both arrested on September 8th, 2008, and severely tortured in the Toudao Police Station in Helong City. Their car, motorcycles, mobile phones, and other personal property were confiscated. After being detained for several months, they were each sentenced to eight years in prison by the Helong City Court in 2009.

While in police custody, Mr. Shen was severely beaten for several continuous days, kicked in the head and other parts of his body until he was in a near-death state, and then force-fed unknown drugs intended to keep him alive. He was transferred to the Longxicheng Detention Centre in an unconscious state. Upon regaining consciousness, the guards handcuffed his hands behind his back, put shackles on his ankles, and proceeded to sit on and stomp his back while pulling his limbs backward, causing unbearable pain. As a result, Mr. Shen could not walk or eat for three months. His family was not allowed to visit him for five months.

Ms. Li was also severely tortured at the Toudao Police Station. Officers covered her head with a plastic bag and then covered her mouth with their hands, nearly suffocating her. They beat her with a metal tube until it bent and then beat her further with a rubber club. With her hands cuffed behind her back, officers forcibly pulled her arms over her head while punching her lower jaw at the same time. They also sat on the top of her, pressing her head and face into the floor, forcibly pulled her legs apart and bent them in opposite directions, poured water on her and then used electric batons to shock her.

Additional information available at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/11/3/101968.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/7/28/227610.html