Sixty-Eight-Year-Old Woman Persecuted Almost to Death In Harbin City

Name: Li Xuejun
Gender: Female
Age: 68
Address: N/A
Occupation: Retired
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 1st, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wanjia Forced Labour Camp
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Electric shocks, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, sexual assault, forced-feedings, extortion, physical restraint, incarceration in a psychiatric hospital, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, and denial of toilet use.

In the early morning of January 1st, 2012, 68-year-old Ms. Li Xuejun, who practises Falun Gong, was arrested from her home in Daowei District, Harbin City and taken to the Second Detention Centre by police officer Xiao Yu from the Mingqiang Police Station, community manager Wei, and three other people.

On the morning of April 25th, the Daowei District Court held a hearing to prosecute Ms. Li Xuejun and several other Falun Gong practitioners.

Based on recent accounts, it is believed that Ms. Li is in a coma and is hospitalized on the 8th floor of the Prison Administration Center Hospital, in a section reserved for “special personnel.” A few days ago, when Ms. Li's relatives and friends went to visit her, they couldn't find her after searching the whole hospital. Just as they were in the elevator to leave the hospital, the elevator went to the 8th floor. When the elevator door opened, they saw iron bars with a sign that read, “Hospital For Special Personnel.” A police officer entered the elevator and went down to the ground floor with them. They tried to go up to the 8th floor using the stairs but the entrance door was locked with a sign, saying “No Entrance—For Special Patients Only.”

Over a Decade of Persecution

Ms. Li Xuejun, 68, is a retired worker from Harbin Daily-Use Chemistry Second Factory. She was imprisoned in a forced labour camp for two years because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. She was detained on two other occasions and has been harassed by Xu Shumei, party secretary of the Minqiang Neighbourhood Committee, around the time of the Communist Party's sensitive dates.

On December 8th, 2000, while on a train to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, the train police forced Ms. Li Xuejun off the train at Changchun because she was unable to show her identity card. Officer Shan Jimin from the Lihua Police Station, Daowai District, Harbin City, was also involved. Police Chief Hou of the Dongyuan Police Station, along with Sun Di, Sun Tianxiang, Rao, and others, took Ms. Li Xuejun back to Harbin City's Dongyuan Police Station where she was beaten by officers including police chief Hou. Officer Sun shouted, “I beat you even though you're older than my mother and I'd beat you even if you were 80!” Ms. Li's face was severely swollen after the beating.

The officers forcibly stripped off Ms. Li's shirt and trousers, searched her person and robbed her of dozens of yuan she had with her. The police each took a share of her money, and with money taken from other Falun Gong practitioners, they went out to dinner in a restaurant. Meanwhile, Ms. Li was not allowed to eat, drink, or use the toilet.

In the afternoon of December 9th, 2000, officer Shan Jimin and another officer from the Lihua Police Station (the area where Ms. Li lives) came to pick her up. However, Shan Jimin wasn't able to recognize Ms. Li even after looking at her for quite a while. She was unrecognizable due to being beaten and tortured. The officers refused to take her.

Later on, the Mingqiang Police Station in Daowai District sent officers Huang Di and Yao to bring Ms. Li back to the Mingqiang Police Station. Huang Di yelled at Ms. Li, “I could let you go home even if you were a killer or arsonist, but I would like to kill you and your whole family because you practise Falun Gong.”

On December 10th, 2000, Ms. Li was detained for 18 days at Harbin City's Second Detention Centre, where she was stripped, searched, and made to sit facing a window without talking or moving. She was not given any water to drink. If she moved even a little, the inmates monitoring her would beat her. Harbin City in winter is very cold. Ms. Li was forced to sleep on an ice-cold iron bed. The physical abuse and substandard living conditions caused old wounds on her right leg to fester and she became emaciated.

After leaving the prison, Ms. Li was followed and harassed on any so-called sensitive days by neighbourhood committee manager Xu Shumei and local police. On April 14th, 2001, as soon as Ms. Li arrived at a fellow practitioner's home, officers from the Daxin Street Police Station, Daowai District, arrested her and held her at the station for 14 hours.

On May 19th, 2002, Daowai District's Lihua Street Office manager Wang ordered the Lihua Station police to arrest Ms. Li and handcuff her in an underground building for the night. On the following morning, she was transported to Harbin City's Second Detention Centre. She had been subjected to physical exams many times and was found to be unfit for detention. But the Lihua Police Station officers altered the checkup results and sent them directly to the Harbin City Public Security Bureau, which then approved sending Ms. Li Xuejun to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp for two years.

By the beginning of 2003, Ms. Li had lost her teeth, her hair had turned grey, and her heart was damaged. She appeared to be close to death. Wanjia Forced Labour Camp guard Zhang Bo, fearing being held responsible for her death, released Ms. Li on medical parole after extorting 2,000 yuan¹ from her family.

Dongyuan Police Station, Daowai District, Harbin City
Phone: +86-451-88901989, 88901957
Minqiang Police Station, Daowai District, Harbin City
Phone: +86-451-57682362, 451-57602564
Minqiang Street Administration Office
Phone: +86-451-88900084, 57681481
Lihua Police Station, Daowai District, Harbin City
Phone: +86-451-83033356, 83033357
Police officer Shan Jimin: +86-13836016368

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.