Ms. Song Caihong Dies after Severe Beatings in Detention

Name: Song Caihong (宋彩虹)
Gender: Female
Age: 41
Address: Zhaojiawan Village, Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: January 15, 2012
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 30, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Huludao City Detention Center (葫芦岛拘留所)
City: Xingcheng
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, forced labor, illegal sentencing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, physical restraint, interrogation, detention

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Song Caihong from Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province was severely beaten by police officer Zhang Lijun. She died on January 15, 2012 at the age of 41. Prior to this latest experience of persecution, Ms. Song was subjected to brutal torture in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp for three years. She was later sentenced to five years in prison at the Liaoning Province Women's Prison.

Ms. Song Died from Severe Beatings

On December 30, 2011, Ms. Song Caihong was reported while handing out calendars that contained truth-clarification information, and she was arrested by officers from the Diaoyutai Police Station. At the police station, Zhang Lijun, an officer from the Xingcheng Domestic Security Team, beat Ms. Song so severely that she vomited blood. She was taken to the Huludao Detention Center that night.

The beating damaged Ms. Song's stomach, after which she was unable to eat. She became emaciated in just a few days. Officer Zhang Lijun created a fabricated document and attempted to put her fingerprint on it. When Ms. Song refused to let them have her fingerprint, Zhang and several other officers severely beat her again.

After Ms. Song's family learned about her situation, family members and two officers took her to Huludao Hospital for a physical exam. After the initial checkup, the doctor said that Ms. Song's situation was critical and that she should be hospitalized immediately. The doctor ordered tests in preparation for a more comprehensive examination. However, the officers refused to allow Ms. Song to be hospitalized or to have the tests done, and they instead returned her to the detention center.

Two days later, Ms. Song's family was notified that they needed to pick her up from the detention center. When they arrived, they found that she was unconscious. The family took Ms. Song to the Xingcheng Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her as having acute uremia (kidney failure due to injury) and stated that she needed to undergo dialysis. During this time, Ms. Song was in and out of consciousness. On January 15, Ms. Song died in the Internal Medicine Kidney Ward of the No. 313 Hospital.

In order to cover up their responsibility for Ms. Song's death, the police officers from the Xingcheng Domestic Security Team claimed that the uremia resulted from Ms. Song having staged a hunger strike.

Subjected to Brutal Torture in Forced Labor Camp and Prison

Since the Jiang regime began its suppression of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Ms. Song Caihong has been arrested and detained multiple times.

On July 20, 1999, Ms. Song went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, and she was detained at the local detention center. She was shackled and handcuffed after she performed the Falun Gong exercises. She was released three months later on October 10.

On October 13, 1999, Ms. Song was taken to the detention center after she did the Falun Gong exercises in Dongshan Stadium. On October 31, she was sentenced to three years of forced labor in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, where she was also subjected to brutal torture. Ms. Song was locked in a small cell during two successive Chinese New Years. Her hands and feet were bound to iron rings, in a posture in which she was unable to move. Her feet were lacerated by the shackles, and she had bruises all over her body from frequent beatings.

Ms. Song's three-year term was set to end in October of 2002. However, on August 22, 2002, the Shenyang City Intermediate People's Court and the Shenyang City Prosecutor's Office sent officials to Masanjia where they held a show trial. Three Falun Gong practitioners were tried that day: Ms. Song Caihong, Ms. Li Liming, and Ms. Li Dongqing. During the trial, the three practitioners shouted together "Falun Gong is good!" The guards immediately began beating them. Su Jing, director of the labor camp, was witnessed shouting during the trial, "Increase the term to seven years!" No prison guards spoke in reaction, and silence followed. Practitioners present shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” and “Cultivation is not a crime!” In reaction to this demonstration, the guards pulled the practitioners' hair, covered their mouths, and punched and kicked them before pulling them away. The practitioners were thrown into a confinement room on the first floor, with duct tape over their mouths. The three women on trial were each given an additional three to six months in prison.

Ms. Song Caihong was sentenced to five years in prison. She was detained at the Shenyang City Detention Center for over a month, then transferred to the Liaoning Province Women's Prison. At Liaoning Prison, she was subjected to beatings, verbal abuse, and torture including being shocked with electric batons.

Torture re-enactment: shocked with electric batons

It is alleged that while in the detention center, Ms. Song was forced to sit on a tiger bench, which caused her legs to swell badly. She was suffocated under a blanket, routinely beaten, and the guards injected her with drugs that caused sleepiness. Ms. Song was tortured with many more methods while in the prison.

Xingcheng City Police Department: [phone]
Xu Feng, personnel of the Xingcheng City Detention Center: [phone] (Cell)