(Minghui.org)

Name: Li XifuChinese Name: 李锡福Gender: MaleAge: 83City: TaiyuanProvince: ShanxiOccupation: Retired Taiyuan Steel Company EmployeeDate of Death: September 25, 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 18, 2015Most Recent Place of Detention: Jinzhong Prison

Because he practiced Falun Gong, Mr. Li Xifu from Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, served two labor camp terms and one prison term totaling seven years. He endured relentless torture while in custody and became incapacitated. After he was released, he was devastated to learn that his pension was suspended. The police continued to harass him. After being persecuted for years, he passed away on September 25, 2024. He was 83.

Mr. Li Xifu

Two Forced Labor Camp Terms

Mr. Li Xifu, a retired employee of the Taiyuan City Steel Company, began practicing Falun Gong in April 1997. Many of his physical ailments soon disappeared.

After the persecution started in 1999, Mr. Li and his daughter went to Beijing on December 20, 1999 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. They were illegally arrested, taken back to their area, and held at the Luohe Detention Center for 30 days.

Mr. Li returned to Beijing in February 2000 to appeal and was given one year of forced labor. In late 2000, he was handcuffed behind his back for a day and had to be fed by others.

Only one week after he was released in early 2001, Mr. Li was arrested again and taken to a brainwashing center. Days later, he was transferred to a detention center. After one month there, he was given another labor camp term of three years.

While serving his second term at the Xindian Forced Labor Camp, Mr. Li was monitored by two inmates around the clock. They beat him when he did the Falun Gong exercises. They also watched him when he slept and beat him when he moved even a little.

The guards later ordered Mr. Li to dig and transport soil. As a result of the hard work, he developed enteritis and couldn’t keep food down. His calves were so swollen that they were as thick as his thighs. Yet the guards still forced him to do the hard labor.

More Arrests

In February 2004, Mr. Li’s daughter, Ms. Li Runfang, was arrested for distributing Falun Gong materials and later given a three-year forced labor camp term. When he visited his daughter at the labor camp in April 2004, he told the guards that she didn’t do anything wrong in distributing Falun Gong materials. The guards accused him of promoting Falun Gong and called the police. He was arrested by officers from the Xindian Police Station, taken to a detention center and later given another one-year labor camp term. Because the Taiyuan City Forced Labor Camp and the Xindian Forced Labor Camp refused to admit him due to his poor health, the police released him.

Mr. Li was reported for distributing Falun Gong materials in May 2005. The police ransacked his home and threatened to sentence him to ten years.

For seeking the release of another practitioner, who was detained for distributing Falun Gong materials, Mr. Li was arrested again in April 2006 and taken to the Chaicun Detention Center. The next morning, when he was doing the Falun Gong exercises, more than ten inmates beat him on the head with their shoes. When he was released three days later, his son told him the police raided their home when no one was there. They had no idea how many of their personal items were confiscated.

Mr. Li was reported again for distributing Falun Gong materials during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While arresting him, the police pushed him to the ground and dragged him by the arms to the police station. They attempted to photograph him and collect his fingerprints by force. He refused to comply and they continued to beat him until midnight. When he was released the next day, his face was covered with injuries and bruises. His wrists also had deep scars caused by the tight handcuffs.

The police followed Mr. Li to his home on July 13, 2010. They arrested him and his daughter and interrogated them for 60 hours, non-stop. The police didn’t allow them to sleep or provide them with food or water during the interrogation. Mr. Li was later released, but Ms. Li was kept in custody and sentenced to six years.

Sentenced for Suing Former CCP Dictator

Mr. Li filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. He mailed the complaint on July 6, 2015, but the document was intercepted by the post office. When he found out about it, Mr. Li filed a complaint against the post office on September 17, 2015. The Jiancaoping Court accepted the case and held a hearing about it on November 9, 2015. The judge adjourned the session with the excuse that Mr. Li failed to provide sufficient supporting documents.

On November 14, 2015, the Jiancaoping Police Station received a notice from the Taiyuan City Police Department, instructing them to investigate Mr. Li’s “false accusations.”

The notice read, “Feng Zheng, the secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and director of the 610 Office, requested that the police ‘set up a special case’ against Li Xifu for his ‘false accusations and abuse of lawsuits’ and other disruptive activities.” It ordered the local police to “resolutely crack down on the illegal activities in accordance with the law and investigate key Falun Gong practitioners involved in it.”

Li Yusheng, the deputy secretary of the Shanxi Party Committee and deputy director of the Police Department, instructed that “the law enforcement team should attach great importance to the case and resolutely crack down on the sabotage activities such as false accusations and abuse of lawsuits by Falun Gong practitioners, in accordance with the law.”

Three days later on November 18, 2015, a group of plainclothes officers broke into Mr. Li’s home, almost tearing down his front door. They dragged him downstairs without allowing him to change out of his pajamas and get dressed. After taking him away, the police returned and raided the place in front of his 15-year-old grandson. The teenage boy was so terrified that he fled to a relative’s home in another city on his own after the police left.

The Jiancaoping Police Station later submitted Mr. Li’s case to the Jinyuan District Procuratorate and accused him of “sabotaging state secret.”

The Jinyuan District Court held a hearing of Mr. Li’s case on August 31, 2016. His lawyer entered a not guilty plea for him. He was sentenced to three years and fined 1,500 yuan. His appeal was rejected by the Taiyuan City Intermediate Court.

Blocked Legal Channels to Seek Justice and Tortured in Prison

Mr. Li was transferred to the Jinzhong Prison on January 16, 2017. When his daughter went to the prison to visit him on February 6, 2017, the guard refused to allow her to see him and ordered her to come back in two months.

Under Mr. Li’s family’s strong insistence, they were allowed to visit him on March 23, 2017. The family was separated by a glass wall in the visitation room and talked via a phone. Mr. Li told his loved ones that he was beaten twice by the guards. The first time was on February 18, 2017, by three guards. When he began to talk about the second incident, the telephone signal was interfered with and the family could not hear him clearly.

Mr. Li’s family returned to the prison on March 30, 2017, with the two lawyers they’d hired for him. The guards denied their visitation request and demanded the lawyers provide an introduction letter from the Shanxi Province Prison Administration Bureau first. Even though they knew such a request was illegal, the lawyers still went to the bureau. The receptionist said that they had never heard of a lawyer visiting a Falun Gong practitioner and that they had to get instructions from their supervisors. They also refused to provide a timeline for the response.

Mr. Li’s family prepared a motion to reconsider his case and went to the prison on May 24, 2017 for his signature. A guard at the prison affairs office withheld the document and said they had to get permission from the prison leadership before they could file the motion. He asked the family to follow up in a week. But when the family called a week later, the office said they hadn’t received an answer yet. When the family called again, no one picked up the phone.

During the family’s next visit on June 22, 2017, two guards closely monitored their conversation with Mr. Li. The scars on his wrists from the tight handcuffs still hadn’t healed. The family asked about the motion to reconsider the case, and the guards said the person who was responsible for it wasn’t in the office that day.

After Mr. Li was released, his family learned that he was held in solitary confinement for 100 days, during which time he was subjected to constant beatings. His hands became disabled as a result of the prolonged handcuffing. The inmates had to help him put on his regular clothes the day he was released.

Meanwhile, the authorities also withheld 80,000 yuan from Mr. Li’s pension and forced his family to sign a guarantee that he would no longer “disrupt social order,” a common pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners. After he was persecuted for so many years, Mr. Li passed away on September 25, 2024.

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