Name: Li Zhenying (李振英)
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Address: Shuanghe Coal Mine, Hengshan District, Jixi
City
Occupation: Former manager of Erdaohezi Mine Ice
Cream Factory
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 17, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Women's Prison
(黑龙江女子监狱)
City: Jixi
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, illegal
sentencing, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture,
force-feedings, physical restraint, home ransacking, detention
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Li Zhenying began practicing Falun Gong in the summer of 1998. Since the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, she has been illegally arrested, beaten, and tortured several times. Ms. Li was sentenced to eleven years in prison in 2003, and was taken to Heilongjiang Women's Prison on March 10, 2004. She is currently being held in the No. 11 Ward of the prison.
Ms. Li went to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong. The second time she went, on November 12, 2000, she saw several groups of police on Tiananmen Square forcing people to slander Falun Gong. She immediately reprimanded them, “How can you make people do that? What kind of an example are you setting for your children? Aren't you ashamed?” Some of the police lowered their heads in shame, but others turned on Ms. Li and arrested her. She was taken to Jixi Detention Center, where she went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Twenty days later, she was released.
Ms. Feng Guojun and Ms. Sun Shuying rented a room with Ms. Li in the Chengzihe District of Jixi. The police arrested Ms. Sun during the daytime on August 17, 2002. Ms. Feng and Ms. Li were later arrested when they returned home at around 5:00 p.m. That night, they were taken to an unknown location, and forced to stand for the entire night with their hands and feet in shackles. The next day, they were beaten and forced to sit on a tiger bench for a day. Officers poured boiling water over Ms. Li and burned her with cigarettes. Officers went to their home and confiscated two photocopiers, two cell phones, and other personal belongings, valued at approximately 30,000 yuan.
Mr. Cheng Zhongqiang and Mr. Zhao Baoshan were also arrested at the same time. They were interrogated and tortured, then taken to Jixi Detention Center.
Two dozen practitioners were detained there during a period from August 18, 2002 to March 9, 2004. Many held hunger strikes to resist the persecution and were force-fed milk powder mixed with large amounts of salt by inmate Gao Ying and prison doctor Mr. Wang. Ms. Zhao Chunying, 56, died several days after she was brutally force-fed.
The five practitioners were put on trial at Chengzihe District Court in late 2003. Ms. Li and Ms. Feng were sentenced to eleven years in prison, Mr. Cheng and Mr. Zhao were sentenced to twelve years in prison, and Ms. Sun was sentenced to one and a half years in a forced labor camp.
Ms. Li and Ms. Feng were taken to the No. 9 ward in Heilongjiang Women's Prison on March 10, 2004. Lu Jinghui, head of the prison guards, and guards Niu Cuisong and Geng Xiuli tried to force them to renounce their beliefs.
Ms. Li was later transferred to the No. 1 Ward, where she was constantly monitored by guards. She was sometimes deprived of sleep for long periods of time. When she refused to wear the prison uniform and went on hunger strike to protest the persecution, the guards ordered inmates to viciously beat her and force-feed her. She was then put in solitary confinement.
In late 2006, Ms. Li and another practitioner, Ms. Zhang Li, were locked up in a small, dark room and were tortured for several weeks.
At around 3:00 p.m. on March 21, 2011, guards ordered practitioners to wear the prison uniform. When practitioners refused to comply, the guards instigated inmates Wang Guihua and Lu Shan to beat them. Ms. Li and many other practitioners went on a hunger strike to resist the persecution and were brutally force-fed.
Ms. Li's daughter was taking her university entrance examinations around the time she was sentenced to eleven years. Her husband also divorced her because he was unable to bear the pressure of the persecution. Ms. Li's 72-year-old mother was so traumatized by the mistreatment of her daughter that she became ill and passed away on January 5, 2011.
