Le Devoir (a Montreal French newspaper): End of Jinyu Li's Nightmare

February 25 2002

She has been dreaming of this for two years now and the moment has finally arrived. After having imagined her husband under the worst possible conditions in detention, even thinking that she would perhaps never see him again, Jinyu Li will take the long road to Dorval Airport this morning to greet this man that the Chinese government had imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong.

"Yes, I have spoken to Shenli, he is fine. He says that the whole time he never once renounced his faith in the practice of Falun Gong and that this is what kept him alive," states his wife Jinyu Li yesterday. This Canadian, who had emigrated from China 13 years ago, never thought for a moment that when she joined accountant Shenli Lin in marriage in 1999, her life would be in such turmoil because they both practiced Falun Gong.

A spiritual movement banned in China since July 1999, Falun Gong--or Falun Dafa-- combines exercises, meditation and Buddhist faith. Since its founding in 1992, it would count nearly 100 million followers in the world, according to estimates of the movement itself, and thousands of them have been sent to forced labor camps and nearly 370 have lost their lives under China's torture.

"Shenli did not yet tell me in detail the conditions of his detention, because he believed the telephone line was tapped," explained his wife yesterday, who had multiplied her many endeavours since December 1999 to free her husband, "He spoke of unbearable mental torture, but he said that all that he had learned and remembered from Falun Gong and his daily practice helped him to cut himself off from the horrors that he was living. He kept the good things within." Fervent followers of this Chinese spiritual practice from the Buddhist school try to refine the body and mind by special exercises and meditation. ShenLi Lin and Jinyu Li went to a government office in Beijing nine months after their marriage to ask that China cease the persecution of Falun Gong. They were arrested at once.

Yang, spokesman of the movement in Montreal explains, "Mrs. Li was lucky, because of her Canadian citizenship. She was released after 48 hours and sent back to this country."

Her husband was not so lucky. Initially he was imprisoned for a month, and then he was transferred to a forced labor camp in Dafeng, in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. "I sent dozens of letters. We tried by all possible means to reach him, I even went to Geneva to ask the Red Cross for help to communicate with him, all to no avail," explains Jinyu Li, who confirms having spoken on the telephone these last few days to a man who resembles exactly the one she saw for the last time in December of 1999.

Her endeavours and repeated demands that she made to the Chinese Embassy in order to go to China herself seems to have aggravated the situation, she believes. Her own brother was detained 3 times, and members of Shenli Lin's family were also detained, one of which, his own brother, was incarcerated with him as well. "He says that he never had the right to see his own brother," says Jinyu, who believes that "mental torture" was carried out by her husband's jail-keepers.

Last July, Jinyu Li once again found her smile after learning of her husband's pending freedom. "However, the Chinese authorities prolonged his jail sentence another 6 months without giving any explanation," she says. "For him, it was the same thing. He was to be freed and then the sentence was prolonged without specifying any reason."

"I am happy my husband is finally back with me,"áshe explains, still disturbed by the imminence of the outcome which she had been awaiting for months. Before his arrest, Shenli Lin was awaiting his visa of immigration for Canada, a step that the couple still hopes to pursue as soon as possible.

Other detainees affiliated in some way with Canada have been able to have happy endings to their imprisonment, perhaps because of pressure maintained by certain humanitarian organizations, the media and the population at large, believes Yang. "Without the help of all these Canadian people, this would never have been possible," explains Jinyu Li. "My husband and I would like to extend our thanks and appreciation. Many thanks. Thanks again."á