Cao Shuangmei

When Ms. Cao Shuangmei went to Jiexiu City to pass out truth clarifying materials in the summer of 2003, she was arrested, her home was ransacked, and she was detained. After going on a hunger strike for seven days to protest her imprisonment, the police released her.

One month later, the police arrested Ms. Cao again, without cause, and severely tortured her. To protest her imprisonment, she went on a hunger strike for more than twelve days. Fearing that Ms. Cao was on the verge of becoming critically ill, the police released her. Five to six months later, the police went to her home to arrest her once again, but she managed to escape.

Around January 20, 2008, eighteen days before the 2008 Chinese New Year, a group of officers from the Jirxiu County Police Department (under Jiexiu City) arrested Ms. Cao at her home. The police detained her for close to six months without informing her family.

Lei Runxiang, warden of the Second Ward at Shanxi Province Women's Prison, encouraged inmates to brutally beat Ms. Cao in her cell, eventually causing her untimely death in July 2009. In order to cover up their crime, the prison authorities lied to her family, saying that she had died due to a sudden heart attack. In addition, they suspended all visitation rights to the prison for a month and interrogated all detained Falun Gong practitioners.