(Minghui.org) The Yushu City Procuratorate approved Ms. Li Xiujuan's case seven days following her arrest for practicing Falun Gong. When Ms. Li's lawyer visited her at the detention center two days later, he noticed bruises on her arms and swelling of her feet. She had difficulty eating and appeared pale and weak after the guards force-fed her following her hunger strike to protest the persecution.
Her lawyer suspected that guards had injured her esophagus during the force-feeding.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body self-improvement practice persecuted by the communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Li, in her 50s, was arrested by more than ten officers on June 13, 2018. The arrest took place in front of her 88-year-old father-in-law, who had just been discharged from a hospital, her husband, and another family member.
According to her neighbors who witnessed her arrest, officers handcuffed her and dragged her for a long distance. Her husband and the other family member were also brought to the police station and detained for a few hours for “obstructing police performing their duties.”
The police ransacked her home without a search warrant and confiscated many of her personal belongings. They later returned and searched her home again after obtaining a warrant following her arrest.
Ms. Li has been detained for more than three months and is now facing possible indictment.
This isn't the first time that Ms. Li has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong.
In March 2003, she was arrested after she was followed by police after attending a gathering of practitioners. Each of the eleven practitioners arrested was tortured and interrogated. Ten of them were later sent to forced labor camps, and one was sentenced to prison.
Police officers beat Ms. Li with bamboo strips, leaving bruises all over her body. Even though the detention center refused to admit her due to her severe injuries from the beating, the police managed to force the labor camp to admit her.
After she was released after one year of forced labor, the staff at Yushu 610 Office attempted to send her to a brainwashing center to force her to renounce her faith. After strong protest from her family members, they eventually released her.
