(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Sun Jihong was 40 years old and worked in the Huanan Forestry Company's Xianfeng site in Heilongjiang Province. In 1994, he learned to practice Falun Dafa. When the persecution began on July 20, 1999, because Sun Jihong would not renounce his belief in the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, he was illegally detained for 15 days in November 1999. He was put on strict surveillance after being released, which greatly restricted his personal freedom. In addition, he was forced to go to the police station twice a day to sign in. Then in July 2000 he was arrested again for not going along with the police's unreasonable requirements. After being released, he was again kept under surveillance and had his personal freedom restricted. He was subjected to constant harassment and persecution, and he had no choice but to leave his home in January of 2001. A year later in January 2002, he was arrested in Beijing. While being held in custody and escorted by the authorities back to his hometown, Mr. Sun jumped off the train and managed to escape the persecution he was going to be subjected to upon his return. On September 25th of the same year, he was again illegally arrested and detained in Beijing at the Yuquanying area in Fengtai District. Four days later, on September 29th, he was subjected to a round of excruciating torture and died. On October 2, his body was cremated.
It was reported that when Sun Jihong's family members went to confirm his identity after viewing his body, they noticed his face was covered with a very thick layer of white powder, making it difficult to identify him. At the family's insistence, the police allowed them to wipe off the white powder on Sun's face. Only then was the family able to identify him. From the remains of his body, it was clear that he had been brutalized. There was a hole between his eyebrows, a hole on each of his cheeks, and his body had cuts and bruises everywhere.
Sun Jihong's wife Ms. Yuan Hezhen was 41 years old and had learned Falun Dafa in in 1994. She worked in the Huanan Forestry Company's Xianfeng site in Heilongjiang Province as a bank director. When the persecution began on July 20, 1999, because Yuan Hezhen persisted in practicing, she was illegally detained for 15 days in November of 1999. After being released, she was put on strict surveillance, which greatly restricted her personal freedom. In January of 2001, because of the mass arrests of practitioners by the Huanan Forestry Company police, she was forced to leave her home. Then she was arrested in Beijing in May of 2002. In the detention center, she suffered fierce group beatings, had her hands handcuffed behind her back, went through force-feeding and other cruel tortures. She spit up blood and had blood in her feces, and her body was in a state of extreme weakness. Later, with the use of righteous thoughts she managed to escape. However, through the course of her imprisonment, her body suffered serious damage. She had to live in different places and had no stable roof over her head. Her physical condition worsened every day until she passed away in July 2003.
Sun Jihong and Yuan Hezhen left behind a 14-year-old daughter, as well as Sun Jihong's elderly grandfather and widowed mother.
