Leicester Mercury (United Kingdom): Refugee in plea to free his father

November 15, 2004
Section: News; People; Issues; Pg. 17

A man who fled China to escape torture and imprisonment is appealing for help to free his father.

Li Heping spent nearly two years in a forced labour camp, where he was locked in a dark cell until he lost all sense of time and was injected with terrifying hallucinogenic drugs.

Mr Heping, who is now studying at Leicester University, said he was targeted because he practices Falun Gong, which is illegal in China. Also known as Falun Dafa, it is a style of meditation and exercise similar to t'ai chi and was banned by the Chinese government in 1999.

The father-of-one said he was first arrested when his daughter was born three years ago, and was held for two days.

On his daughter's first birthday, he was arrested again and sentenced to two years in a forced labour camp.

He was tortured, made to sleep in a tiny cell with up to 10 other inmates and forced to work 10-hour days for months on end.

He was only allowed to see his family five times in 22 months.

The 34-year-old, from the city of Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province, said: "My wife visited the camp and asked why they wouldn't let her see me. She didn't want my daughter to forget what her father looked like.

"From the window I could see them - my wife and daughter - but the police wouldn't tell me they were there."

Fearing for his safety when he was released from the camp in August, he came to Britain and applied for asylum.

He wants to bring his wife and daughter over, but now his father has been arrested. He has not heard from him since March, when the 61-year-old was sentenced to a year's hard labour for having a Falun Gong book.

Mr Heping is now worried he may be tortured or killed.

He said Falun Gong had 100 million practitioners in 1999, but that the Chinese government saw it as a threat.

A spokesman for human rights charity Amnesty International said Mr Heping's story matched reports it had received from China. She said: "[...] Thousands of followers have been arrested. Many have been tortured and there are reports of people being tortured or beaten to death."

Mr. Heping has started a petition to raise awareness of his father's plight and that of other Falun Gong practitioners.

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