(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Meng Lijun is a Falun Gong practitioner from Guanzhuang Township, Zhangqiu City, Shandong Province who the Chinese regime has persecuted since 1999. She was arrested and sentenced to 10 years of incarceration in September 2005 and held at the Shandong Province Women's Prison. Ms. Meng often found unidentified substances in her food and water. In the spring of 2009, the prison refused to allow her family to visit her. The family has lost contact with her for several months.
Ms. Meng Lijun was born in June 1958 in Xifanliu Village, Guanzhuang Township, Zhangqiu City. She was a nurse and chief of the village women's association. Ms. Meng had heart disease that was healed as soon as she began practicing Falun Gong in 1998. Ms. Meng went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong at the end of July 1999, and was persecuted for it. She again went to Beijing in December 1999 but was arrested before getting to the Office of Appeals and Letters.
Zhangqiu City police took her back and jailed her at a detention center where she was badly tortured. Guard Yu Baohai and a female guard held her in a small cell and shocked her with electric batons on her sensitive areas, burning her skin and hair.
Guards forced her to take off her clothes and only wear underwear. Yu Baohai cuffed her hand to a wire high above the ground in the yard, leaving her toes barely touching the ground. Then they shocked her with electric batons. She was hung there for an afternoon. Once released, she was forced to stand on ice until dark.
During detention, the guards forced Ms. Meng to stand on a pick-up truck. They drove the truck around in the town for six hours to publicly humiliate her. They also held a mock public trial to humiliate her.
Ms. Meng was jailed there for 40 days. Her family had to pay 3000 Yuan to the local police station and 3000 Yuan to the detention center.
Another arrest followed in May 2000. Guanzhuang Township Police Station agent Zhang Jingtong, now deputy head of the Domestic Security Team in Zhangqiu City, arrested Ms. Meng and took her to the police station and forbade her to sleep. She held a hunger strike to protest and was released five days later.
Guanzhuang Township Police Station agents arrested Ms. Meng on June 27, 2000, from a practitioner's home and locked her into a small cell in the police station. Police locked her hands behind her back and connected an electric cord to her thumbs. Wang Shaoqun, the head of Guanzhuang Police Station chief, now political head of Zhangqiu City Police Department, turned on a manual electric generator, which was connected to the cord and generated a current going through Ms. Meng's body, a brutal torture. Ms. Meng sweated immediately, trembled and was unable to speak. The process lasted for 15 minutes, until some police from Zhangqiu Police Department arrived.
A top official from the Zhangqiu Police Department showed up. He beat Ms. Meng, pulling her hair, punching and hitting her head for a long time. Then, he pulled her into the yard and locked her onto parallel bars, and the police went for dinner. After dinner they pulled her into a small cell, handcuffed her, connected wires to her hands and feet, and again tortured her with the electric generator. Three agents from Zhangqiu Police Department shocked her and beat her, taking turns, until 11:00 pm. Then she was sent to the city detention center. She started a hunger strike to protest at the detention center, but was force-fed. She was jailed for 30 days and was extorted of 4,000 Yuan before being released.
In March 2001, policeman Wang Shaoqun and four others broke into Ms. Meng's home in the early morning, trying to arrest her. She tried to escape, but got caught and pushed into a car. She screamed, but policemen wrapped her head with her clothes. Her 7-year-old son cried and begged police to release his mother. They pushed him away and took Ms. Meng away.
She was sent to a brainwashing center in Zhangqiu where she was forced to watch videos and read the slanderous materials. Forty-nine days later her husband wrote a guarantee letter for her, and she was released.
Wangcun Town Police Station agents in Zibo City broke into her home in December 2001 and dragged her into a car. They claimed that Ms. Meng handed out Falun Gong materials in Wangcun Town. Once at the police station, they deprived her of food, water and sleep for three days. She held a hunger strike and was released four days later.
One day Guanzhuang Township Police Station officers tried to arrest her on the street. She asked them what law she broke and pointed out that they were harassing her, and it was them who broke the law. Police knew themselves being in the wrong, walking away.
In January 2002, policemen Zhang Jingtong broke into Ms. Meng's home, sent her to the Shandong Province No. 1 Women's Labor Camp and subjected her to three years of forced labor. While there, the captors placed her in a cell, tied her up onto a metal chair, and taped her mouth shut. She was tied for a whole day, until 1:00 am. She started a hunger strike to protest but was brutally force-fed.
Camp doctors stated on the 45th day of her hunger strike that her stomach was withered and her life was in danger. Guards were worried that they had to take responsibility, so they released her after her family paid 5,000 Yuan extortion.
Ms. Meng practiced the exercises at home and her body recovered miraculously. She decided to go into exile to avoid further arrest. Police tried several times to arrest her again a few days after she left home but could not find her.
During her time away home, Tianqiao Police Department officers in Jinan City arrested Ms. Meng on December 20, 2004. They ransacked her temporal living place, confiscated her computer and printer and 4,500 Yuan cash. She was sent to Jinan City Detention Center where she began a hunger strike and was tortured. Guards locked her onto a death bed, with her limbs spread out. Normal people cannot endure it for several hours, but she was locked like that for two whole days. She had to relieve herself on the bed, including her period.
Guards force-fed her through a hard nasal tube, which they deliberately moved in and out. She could not breathe, and was almost suffocated. When removed, the tube was bloody, and blood went everywhere.
After 17 days of the hunger strike, doctors found Ms. Meng's internal organs badly damaged. Her weight went from 140 lbs. to 60 lbs. Her captors worried she would die, so they released her after her family paid 5,000 Yuan extortion ("nursing expense").
At home she again practiced the Falun Gong exercises and was soon recovered again. But police from various units kept harassing her. She decided to leave home again before the Chinese New Year holiday.
Ms. Meng was arrested again in Qihe County on September 27, 2005. On September 28 the captors sent her to the Tianqiao District Police Department's 610 Office. Yu Jinyuan was in charge of her case. She was sent to the Jinan City Detention Center. Her family was only informed two weeks later. Her mother in 80s and her family members came to the detention center several times, asking to see her daughter, but was refused repeatedly. After her family asked her situation again and again, the detention center officials had to tell them that Ms. Meng had been on a hunger strike for many days; her endocrine function was disordered and her mind was muddled. They told her family members to look for the unit who handled her case. They had to find Yu Jinyuan (610 Office head) to release her, but he said the detention center should make the decision, and they should go to the detention center to solve the issue. He finally pushed the family members out of his door.
Ms. Meng's mother and other family members went to Jinan City many times, but didn't get to see her or get her released. Her elderly mother got sick from the extreme anxiety. The 610 Office agents threatened Ms. Meng's husband and demanded money again. He had to give Yu Jinyuan 8,000 Yuan extortion. Ms. Meng's case was sent to the Jinan City Procuratorate and later was transferred to Jinan City Court.
While Ms. Meng was jailed, agents from Tianqiao District Police Department, the district court, procuratorate and detention center colluded together to give unidentified drug into her body, which made her muddle-headed. Under the circumstances, she was secretly tried in December 2005. Her husband was the only one allowed to audit; no one else was allowed to enter to the courtroom, except for 30 police officers and lawyer Hao Chenzhi, a regime appointee. The unconscious Meng was carried into the court. She was sentenced to 10 years and sent to the Shandong Women's Prison.
Her family was forbidden to see her until March 2006 and discovered then that Ms. Meng had all-over edema and had lost memory, being unable to remember her child's age. She forgot what she had said a moment ago, and her emotions unstable.
Her family eventually learned that her captors had tortured her and they often added unidentified substances into her food and water. Her family inquired from prison officials why they added foreign substances to her food, and what toxic items they had used. The officials didn't deny that they did use drugs, but refused to tell what kinds and declared, "She developed mental illness from practicing Falun Gong before she was sent here. We are treating her sickness."
Ms. Meng was forced to do daily heavy labor now. She is unaware that her mother died three years ago.
People who are involved in Ms. Meng's case:
Yu Jinyuan, team leader of Tianqiao District Police Department
Wang Mingang, an officer from Tianqiao District Procuratorate
Wang Yong, judge of the Tianqiao District court
Wang Shaoqun, political head of Zhangqiu City Police Department, 86-13361081921(Cell)
Zhang Jingtong, head of Zhangqiu City Domestic Security Team, 86-15806697117(Cell), 86-13176667796(Cell), 86-531-83316161
