(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Cao Yali from Nong'an County, Jilin Province, was persecuted brutally for refusing to renounce Falun Dafa during her detention at Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp. She was released because of obvious medical reasons when she was dying in August 2003. She later died on February 6, 2004.

Ms. Cao Yali, 46 years old, had practiced Falun Dafa since 1996. Changchun City Public Security Bureau and local police took her into custody on January 24, 2002 for allegedly talking to people about Falun Gong on January 16, 2002, and this was in the same period in which some practitioners were put on trial illegally.

The police blindfolded her and jailed her in a secret interrogation facility, (Some people have revealed that it was a place called, "Jingyuetan" in Changchun City). There they tortured her for one whole day and night by putting her on a "tiger bench" (1), hitting and shocking her with electric batons, putting a pail over her head and then striking the pail violently, freezing her outside in the -20o C [-4o F] weather when she only had on a cotton sweater, and depriving her of sleep. Then, without presenting any evidence, they sentenced her to two years of forced labor at Changchun City Heizuizi Female Detention Center. She was held in the No.4 Brigade.

At the Heizuizi Detention Center, because Ms. Cao refused to renounce Falun Dafa, the police tortured her mentally and physically. She suffered from high blood pressure, and her blood pressure was at times as high as 220MC/NG. She was released for medical reasons in August 2003, when she was apparently dying. On February 6, 2004, she died from complications that resulted from the prolonged torture and mistreatment she endured.

(1) "tiger bench": an instrument of torture. One is forced to sit on a small iron bench with knees tightly tied on the bench and hands tied behind the back. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the lower legs to make it even harder to bear the pain, see illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html].