Name: Li Yifang (李艺芳)
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Anju District, Suining City, Sichuan Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 27, 2008
Most recent place of detention: Nanmusi Women's Forced Labor
Camp, Sichuan ( 四川楠木寺女子劳教所)
City: Suining
Province: Sichuan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, beatings, food deprivation,
home ransacked, forced labor, living under surveillance
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Li Yifang, from Anju District in Suining City, was illegally arrested by the local police while distributing materials about the persecution of Falun Gong in Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province, on February 27, 2008. She was visiting her relatives in Dujiangyan at the time.
Ms. Li was beaten, kicked and slapped in the face at the police station. The officers also struck her against the wall, inducing dizziness, bleeding gums, and loss of teeth.
Officers from the Anju District Police Station subsequently brought her back to Suining. They deprived her of food for several days and did not inform her family about the detention. They also ransacked her home. Although they could not find any evidence to incriminate her, Ms. Li was still sentenced to one year of forced labor.
Ms. Li was first detained at the Yongxing Detention Center in Suining for one month. She was forced to perform heavy labor. Then she was transferred to the Baigu Detention Center, and finally she was taken to the Nanmusi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Sichuan, which is notorious for severe persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
The guards ordered drug-addict inmates to closely monitor Ms. Li. She was not allowed to talk at all and had to work very long hours. Most of her days were spent in a workshop, making toys for export. Her imprisonment was extended for one week because she refused to write the three statements renouncing Falun Gong.
When she was released, Ms. Li's hair had turned white and her teeth had fallen out. She lived under surveillance for at least six months thereafter.
Ms. Li and her family have been frequently harassed by police and had their home ransacked by the authorities since the persecution began in 1999, which caused tremendous pressure on them. For example, Ms. Li's daughter had passed the certification exam that ensured her a position in the local government, but she was not allowed to start working until nine months later.
