Name: Lin Xiumei (林秀梅 )
Gender: Female
Age: 38
Address: Qing'an County, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Clerk at the Qing'an County Transportation Management Station
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 3, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Suihua City Detention Center (绥化市看守所 )
City: Suihua
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, forced drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, extortion, fired from workplace, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use
Key Persecutors: Wang Shubo (王淑波), Li Jianfei (李剑飞), Wang Zhilong (王至龙), Ma Jiang (马江), Zhang Zhijie (张志捷) and Lan Rongsheng (兰容生)
(Clearwisdom.net) On the afternoon of August 3, 2010, Ms. Lin Xiumei, from Qing'an County, Heilongjiang Province, and her husband, Mr. Pan Shun, were arrested and their home was ransacked. Ms. Lin is being detained at the Suihua City Detention Center in Heilongjiang Province. It was reported by a witness that her head was covered by a black plastic bag while she was being interrogated. About 15 days after her arrest, she became emaciated, her complexion was pale and she had a relapse of heart disease.
Arrested, Home Ransacked, and Belongings Confiscated
Officials from the Suihua City 610 Office, along with officers from the Qing'an County Police Department, arrested Ms. Lin Xiumei and her husband Mr. Pan Shun on August 3, 2010, after monitoring and following them. Their family was informed two days later. Ms. Lin's 3-year-old daughter cried every day when she asked for her parents.
Wang Shubo, director of the 610 Office, and Li Jianfei, an agent for the 610 Office, along with several police officers, went to Ms. Lin's home and ransacked it. They confiscated a computer, a printer, a bank deposit book containing 30,000 yuan, along with cash and other personal belongings. They refused to give Ms. Lin's home keys or her personal cash to her family despite the family's repeated requests.
Repeated Detention
Ms. Lin Xiumei was born in 1972. She was a clerk at the Qing'an County Transportation Management Station. She is a kind and upbeat person. She began practicing Falun Gong in late 1998. Ms. Lin has been persecuted repeatedly since the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, causing grief to both her family and herself.
On July 20, 1999, Ms. Lin went to the Heilongjiang Province government office to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, but was arrested and detained for two days.
In October 1999, she was put under house arrest for eights days by officers from the Qing'an County Police Department and the officials at her workplace. They tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong.
She was arrested again on October 30, 1999, and released after the police extorted 750 yuan from her.
In November 1999, police confiscated her new computer.
Experience of Brutal Forced-Feeding
On June 25, 2000, Ms. Lin went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. She was arrested by officers from the Tiananmen Square Police Station and sent to the dispatch center in the Shiliqu area of Beijing. She was exposed to mosquitoes and her body became swollen from mosquito bites. Because she refused to cooperate with the police, she was beaten and her right leg was injured. She held a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention, so she was tied to a iron bed and brutally forced-fed.
The police from Qing'an County brought her back home. On July 3, 2000, she was sent to the Qing'an County Detention Center. On November 28, 2000, Ms. Lin and other detained Falun Gong practitioners started hunger strikes. Wang Zhilong, party secretary of the Qing'an County Police Department, and Ma Jiang, director of the Qing'an County Detention Center, gave the order to tie the practitioners to chairs, where they were brutally forced-fed. Four to five men tortured each practitioner. One person would pry open the mouth with sticks or chopsticks, one would pinch the cheeks, and another would pour salty water into the mouth. After the forced-feeding, the practitioners' lips were cracked and swollen, their teeth loosened, and their cheeks were bruised. Liu Yan later died from the damage done to her lungs during the forced-feeding. Practitioners were later injected with unknown drugs. Ms. Liu Zhongjie's menstrual discharge turned green, Ms. Liu Yan had blood in her stools, and Ms. Lin Xiumei lost the hearing in one of her ears and vomited blood. Eight days later, Ms. Lin started bleeding from her nose and mouth and her life was in danger. The detention center officials extorted 750 yuan from her family, and she was released on December 5, 2000.
Sentenced to Two Years of Forced Labor
After her release, Lan Rongsheng, the former director of the Qing'an County Transportation Management Station, ordered his staff to monitor Ms. Lin. He tried to force her to write a guarantee statement promising that she would not appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Because she refused, Lan fired her.
At around 9:00 a.m. on September 19, 2001, officers from the Qianwei Police Station in Qing'an County arrested Ms. Lin at her home and she was detained at a detention center. Six days later, she was sentenced to two years of forced labor and sent to the Shuanghe Women's Forced Labor Camp in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province.
Shortly after she arrived at the labor camp, she was forced-fed with unknown drugs three times a day. The plastic tubing was inserted through her nose into her stomach, which was suffocating and painful. Her nose bled and she had difficulty breathing. After a few days of torture, she was emaciated and very weak. During the night, she continued to vomit blood.
After she recovered a bit, Ms. Lin was forced to do hard labor. One of the tasks was packaging pesticides. The practitioners doing this job felt the effects of the toxins in the pesticides after only a few days of work, and became dizzy, nauseous, and experienced nose-bleeds. Their eyesight deteriorated as well. Sometimes, they were forced to start work at 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m.
On January 7, 2002, to protest the persecution, Ms. Lin refused to do any labor. Guard Zhang Zhijie forced her to stand in a solitary cell for 15 days, and she was later handcuffed to a heating pipe with her hands behind her back. The handcuffs cut into her flesh, which was very painful. She was then tied to a metal chair in a storage room and forced to sit for six days and five nights. It was very cold in the storage room. Ms. Lin was menstruating at the time and menstrual blood dripped down her legs. Her hands and feet became swollen. She was not taken down until she lost consciousness. After these incidents, she began having an irregular heartbeat, passed out several times, and showed symptoms of heart disease.
On September 19, 2003, Ms. Lin was released after two years of torture.
Police from the Qing'an County Domestic Security Division tried to arrest her again at around 9:00 p.m. on May 11, 2004, but she managed to escape. They ransacked her home and confiscated a computer, a printer, a cell phone, and other personal belongings. However, she was no longer able to return home.
