(Minghui.org)

Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name:
Li Ling (李凌)

Gender:
Female
Age: 51
Address:
Guta District, Liaoning Province

Occupation
: Director of Guta District Labor Department, Jinzhou City

Date of Death:
November 2004

Date of Most Recent Arrest:
May 28, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Liaoning Province Women's Prison (辽宁女子监狱) City: Jinzhou
Province:
Liaoning

Persecution Suffered
: Sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, sexual assault, force-feedings, fired from workplace, physical restraint, detention, denial of restroom use

Key Persecutors:
Zhang Chun'e (张春娥), Sun Yawei (孙亚威), Guo Haiyan (果海燕), Xu Man (徐曼), Guo Naijuan (郭乃娟)

Around 2 a.m. in mid-November 2004, a witness at the Liaoning Province Women's Prison saw prisoner Zhang Chun'e push Ms. Li Ling face down down on a bed. She covered her head with a thick comforter, and pressed a pillow tightly on top of that.

Ms. Li Ling, 51, suffocated to death. The prison arranged a large female prisoner to carry Ms. Li's body out around 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. The prison lied to Ms. Li's family, saying that she died from a heart attack.

Ms. Li Ling

Ms. Li started practicing Falun Gong when Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, gave lectures in Jinzhou City on April 5, 1999. Soon after she began practicing, her illnesses went away. She followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and became kinder toward her staff at the Guta District Labor Department, where she served as director.

Ms. Li, however, was arrested and sentenced twice in 1999 and 2002 after the persecution began. While in custody, she suffered severe abuse intended to force her to give up her belief in Falun Dafa, and she finally died as a result of such torture.

Emaciated and Near Death during Her First Imprisonment

Ms. Li went with other practitioners to Tiananmen Square on October 26, 1999, held up a banner that read “Falun Dafa is good,” and was arrested by the Beijing Police Department and sentenced to one and a half years in prison and her family was not notified. Ms. Li later was transferred to the Dabei Prison in Shenyang in April 2000, and was detained in the Third Battalion of the Third Squad. The warden was Sun Yawei, the discipline chief was Guo Haiyan, and the head of the Third Battalion was Xu Man.

During Ms. Li's detention, Sun Yawei, Guo Haiyan and Xu Man made every effort to force Ms. Li to give up her belief. They took turns talking to Ms. Li and trying to brainwash her with theories that distorted the meaning of the Falun Dafa teachings. Ms. Li was confused by the lies and wrote a statement to give up practicing Falun Dafa. Ms. Li, however, realized in August 2000 that she had been deceived, and declared that all her statements were invalid, and she would never again betray Dafa and its founder.

Ms. Li asked many times to get back the statement she had written, which upset those who had taken credit for her giving up the practice and had been rewarded. They then treated Ms. Li more cruelly. They spread rumors that Ms. Li was mentally ill, and force-fed her with drugs to damage her central nervous system. The drugs gave her such an intense headache that she lost consciousness. She hit her head on the heating radiator which bled from a gash on her head. Ms. Li, however, never surrendered to the cruel persecution.

The persecutors resorted to locking her in a small cell. Ms. Li was put in a 20-square foot room which was dark and damp and without windows. She could not stand up or stretch her legs when lying on the floor. She was not allowed to leave the room even when she had to go to the restroom. She was only given one small hard bun every meal.

The persecutors did not provide her with bedding, and they took off her clothes to humiliate her. They forced her to sit on the damp floor, naked, and six prisoners were assigned to take turns watching her to prevent her from doing the exercises. They deprived her of sleep, tortured her, and tried to force her to write a statement to give up practicing and slander Dafa and its founder. Ms. Li refused, and went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards attempted to force-feed her, but Ms. Li resisted. They then pried open her teeth causing her mouth to bleed, and her teeth became loose and distorted.

Torture reenactment: force-feeding

Ms. Li was tortured so severely that she was a mere skeleton and covered with scabies. She was extremely pale and weak when she was released on April 26, 2001.

Tortured to Death during the Second Imprisonment

Ms. Li was arrested at her home around 8 p.m. on May 28, 2002, taken to the Jinzhou City First Detention Center, and sentenced to four years in prison. She was again put into the Third Battalion of the Third Squad at Liaoning Province Women's Prison. She was persecuted by the same guards as before - Sun Yawei, Guo Haiyan, Xu Man, among others.

Because she remained determined in her belief, Ms. Li was regarded as a “key target” for forcible “transformation”. The persecutors forced Ms. Li to do slave labor for more than ten hours a day, and arranged other prisoners to torture her at night – ordering her to recite the prison regulations, depriving her of sleep and restroom use, forcing her to squat for a long time, and beating and berating her. They not only kept her from talking to others or even making eye contact with others, but also forbade her family to visit or call. The prison controlled and embezzled the funds that her family deposited for her. They also threatened Ms. Li. Because of long-term spiritual and physical torture, Ms. Li's hair turned gray, and her body was swollen.

Guo Naijuan took the place of Guo Haiyan as the discipline chief in the summer of 2003, and took more cruel and base measures to persecute Ms. Li, who protested against the abuse, and shouted “Falun Dafa is good!” on her way from the workshop to the cell. Several guards and prisoners then pushed her down to the ground, and took her away to torture her. Ms. Li went on a hunger strike, but the guards took her to the prison hospital and brutally force-fed her.

Ms. Li returned to the cell in October 2004, with two prisoners, Zhang Chun'e and Zhu Qirong who were in the cell to monitor her. The guards and prisoners beat and tortured Ms. Li during the day, and locked her in a room in the evening when other prisoners returned from the workshop, to prevent her from seeing or talking with anyone.

Ms. Li was held at the end of the hallway, and was segregated from other prisoners. Ms. Li often shouted for help. To keep her from shouting during the time when other prisoners returned from the workshop, the guards gagged her and tied her hands behind her back. They also denied her use of the restroom. If Ms. Li could not hold it any longer, she would wet her pants, and would then be severely beaten.