(Clearwisdom.net) At around noon on February 6, 2003, Ms. Liu Jie and her husband, Mr. He Weidong, were driving southbound on Beida Street in their minivan. While they waited for a traffic light at the intersection of Shizi Street, two policemen from a police car parked by the roadside approached them. Without showing any identification, they asked for and took away Mr. He's driver's license, telling him, "You have to come to the police station with us. Someone has reported you." The police also wanted to take the two passengers in their van to the station, but eventually let them go. Mr. He had no choice but to drive to the station. Three policemen came from inside the station. The one named Xiang Junqiu told Mr. He, "Someone reported you for distributing Falun Gong fliers." Then he asked Yang Baolan and another policeman to search Mr. He's van, but they did not find anything.
Then policemen Zhang Guofu, Dong Huiqun, and Liu Guochen arrived. Zhang found a few cards containing the words "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" in the car. He then interrogated the couple one at a time. Zhang had Mr. He searched, but nothing incriminating was found. They then drove the couple's van and took them to the police department. In the meantime, Dong Huiqun, Liu Guochen and another policeman from the Dongfeng Police Station searched the couple's home. Their son, Ms. Liu's paralyzed father-in-law and elderly, ailing mother-in-law were at home at the time. All through the arrest and the search, not a single policeman showed any identification or warrant.
At around 5:00 p.m., Dong Huiqun and another policeman detained the couple's car at the police station, and took them in handcuffs to the jail on Route120 of the Federal Highway. They put Ms. Liu Jie in cell #6 and Mr. He Weidong in cell #3, and ordered their family members to pay 200 yuan for meals. The next day they moved Mr. He to another cell and extorted another 200 yuan from the family. At around 9:00 a.m., they notified their family and ordered them to post 1,000 yuan as bond for Mr. He's release.
After his release, Mr. He asked for his minivan back, which was their family's only
means of support. The police said that the van had been confiscated. Despite Mr. He's repeated requests to get his minivan back, Zhang Guofu refused. The entire process of the arrest of the couple, and Mr. He's release were without any legal documentation. There were no receipts for the money they paid, and there was no legal document justifying the confiscation of their van. Zhang Guofu ordered all of this done through word of mouth.
At around 8:00 p.m. on February 17, 2003, a black passenger vehicle stopped in front of the gate of the family quarters building of the Bureau of Industry and Commerce. A man who claimed to be from the Second Jail told the guard at the gate that he was looking for Mr. He Weidong. The guard told him, "He is not home. The elders at his home are not well. Can I help you?" The man said, "I am here because of Ms. Liu Jie. Why don't I leave you my telephone number? Please ask him to call me when he gets home." Mr. He called the jail when he got home. A man named Liu Qingyu answered the phone, and told Mr. He, "Ms. Liu Jie went on a hunger strike for a whole week. We tried everything to help her. We forced fed her but it did not go well. We took her to the hospital but they were not able to save her. It happened at around 3 o'clock this afternoon." Mr. He said, "If it happened around 3:00 p.m., why did you wait till 8:00 p.m. to notify me?" Liu said, "We were too busy. People from the attorney general's office were here this afternoon. Your family members can come to the jail at 8:00 tomorrow morning."
The next day thirty to forty of Ms. Liu Jie's family members and relatives went to the jail. People there would not let them see Ms. Liu's body. They asked Liu Qingyu, "Liu Jie did not commit any crime for which she deserved to die. Why did you torture her to death?" Liu Qingyu said, "Liu Jie went on a hunger strike for a week. The first time we force-fed her, she threw up as soon as she went back to her cell. We took her out and force fed her again." He paused for a moment, and continued, "Liu said she would drink it herself, but she choked and died." Liu Jie's family demanded to have an autopsy. Liu Qingyu consented, but Zhang Guofu later rejected the idea.
On February 19, at around 9:00-10:00 a.m., Liu Qingyu and another policeman went to Ms. Liu's parents' home to deliver the death certificate which said that Ms. Liu died of illness. He threatened her parents that if they did not let them cremate the body immediately, they would follow the public health code of Heilongjiang Province and treat it as an unclaimed body. Ms. Liu's father said, "It is not that we don't want to take her body. It is that you people won't give it to us. You won't even let us see it, so how can you say that it is unclaimed. You people killed her, and now you are pressuring us." Liu Qingyu was speechless and left.
On February 20, Zhang Guofu and Zhang Dazhi, from the district attorney's office, and two other people came to Ms. Liu's parents' home. They wanted her family to accept the fabricated cause of death so they could rush through the processing. Ms. Liu's father said, "The cause of my daughter's death is not clear. She was not ill before she was jailed. A perfectly healthy person died within 11 days in your jail. Isn't this plainly the result of persecution? How can you insist that she died of an illness? I absolutely cannot sign my name. I cannot go along with your fabrication."
At around 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, Ms. Liu's family members again went to take up the matter with the people at the detention center. They said, "We were not allowed to see Liu Jie even once in the 11 days of her detention. Now four days after she died in jail, you won't let us see her body. Which of the codes in our existing laws stipulate that?" They repeatedly requested to have their own medical examiner do an autopsy, and to discuss the confiscated minivan and the paid fees.
Later, Zhang Guofu agreed to return the minivan and the money, but would not agree to the autopsy. He pressured the family not to request an autopsy, and said he would give them three thousand yuan if they would consent to an immediate cremation. Ms. Liu's family did not consent, and the two sides could not come to an agreement. Finally Zhang said rudely, "If you consent, we will let you see the body, but no autopsy. Otherwise we will just go ahead and cremate the body whether you consent to it or not." The family was left with no choice and they were anxious to see their daughter, so they reluctantly consented. Finally they saw their daughter's body at the cremation site, four days after her death. They saw that her neck was all red, her mouth wide open and her eyes almost closed. It was extremely traumatic.
Ms. Liu Jie was killed for no reason, leaving her paralyzed father-in-law, her frail and ailing mother-in-law, and her young son with no one to take care of them. No one dared to tell her parents-in-law what really happened. The mother-in-law asked, "How come Ms. Liu has not come home yet?" They had to lie and say that she was sentenced to a prison term. The distress of the news caused the elderly lady to lose her eyesight. They sent her to a hospice in Haerbin to recuperate. A year later, she found out the truth by accident and could not stop crying.
Category: Deaths