Chen Liwen

Ms. Chen Liwen, 50, was a Falun Gong practitioner in Gaozhou City, Guangdong Province.

On May 14, 2001, the Gaozhou Court brought a group of Falun practitioners to "trial," attempting to convict them. They were arrested for appealing in Beijing and later jumped under conditions of duress from the 4^th floor of a building. The case created tremendous anger among the practitioner's family members, and those who knew the truth of their situation. I would like to publicly disclose the details, previously covered up by the authorities and obtained by me with great effort over the last six months.

On December 17, 2000, over 30 practitioners from Gaozhou City planned to take the train to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa. They were discovered by plainclothes police who tortured them brutally at the train station. Most who were arrested are still in jail now. Twelve escaped arrest, and decided to continue the trip and their appeal in Beijing. However, they were arrested by Beijing police soon after they arrived in the suburbs of Beijing.

Gaozhou police were instructed to come and take the practitioners back, so over 10 policemen from Gaozhou City came and escorted the practitioners to the Guangdong-Maoming Building where the Beijing office of Maoming City is located. They planned to take the 12 practitioners back to Guangzhou by train later on. Policemen put the practitioners in a room on the fourth floor. All of those detained were women except Wu Yongjian, a teacher from Maoming Education College.

The practitioners tried reasoning with the police, explaining the fact that arresting and beating innocent people was against state laws. They explained that practicing Falun Gong is not a crime and that appealing is not a crime either. The practitioners expressed their wish to be treated fairly, however the police totally ignored their requests. To the contrary, they showed total disrespect for the practitioners' dignity, even lifting female practitioners' quilts to harass and embarrass them. Under these circumstances, the practitioners locked the door on the morning of December 22 so that the police could not continue to bother them. The police tried to break in. Practitioners opened the window and shouted to the outside world, "Falun Dafa is good," "Restore the reputation of Falun Dafa," etc. They also displayed their banners to clarify the truth to onlookers. The police called in a fire truck with an extension ladder. They tried to break in from the window on the fourth floor. The practitioners strongly resisted their attempts, not wanting to allow the police in to continue to insult and persecute them at will. The practitioners also declared that if the police tried to break in by force, they would all jump out of the building and the police would have to take full responsibility.

The situation reached a stalemate from 4:00pm to the early hours of the next morning. A large number of policemen came, dispersing the onlookers and setting a security perimeter around the building. The practitioners still refused to open the door.

Between 3:00am to 4:00am, the police started to break down the door and at the same time sent up a ladder trying to break in. After the practitioners realized what was going on, they remained determined not to cooperate with the evil. They then jumped one after another out of the building. Only Wu Yongjian, the teacher from Maoming Education College, didn't get a chance to jump because the police grabbed him by the feet first.

As a result, Ms. Chen Liwen  lost her life.