Name: Li Yushu (里玉书)
Gender: Female
Age: 64
Address: Mohe City, Heilongjiang Province (黑龙江省漠河市)
Occupation: Secretary of the Education Commission of the former Amu'er Forest Bureau in Daxing'an Mountain Forest
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Women's Prison (also known as Harbin Women's Prison) (黑龙江女子监狱)
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Shocked with electric batons, sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings
(Minghui.org) Right before the Chinese New Year on February 9, 2013, a team leader from Heilongjiang Women's Prison made an urgent phone call to Ms. Li Yushu's family and told them that she was in critical condition. The family was told to immediately come to the prison if they wished to see her.
After her family arrived, they were not allowed to visit Ms. Li because the team leader who contacted them was not there.
Family Allowed One Visit Over the Past 11 Years of Imprisonment
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Yushu was arrested in May 2002 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. She has been in Heilongjing Women's Prison for nearly 11 years. Ms. Li has been persecuted brutally, and as a result she became very emaciated and weak. Her family attempted to visit her many times, but prison personnel only let Ms. Li's brother see her once.
Family's Recent Visit Denied for the Second Time
After the Chinese New Year, Ms. Li's family traveled a long distance from the Daxinganling Region to Harbin City. On the afternoon of March 6, they went to Heilongjiang Women's Prison requesting to visit her. This time the guard on duty said that it was not a visiting day and the family did not bring their visitors' cards.
After Ms. Li's family repeatedly asked, the guard finally made a phone call to the prison management and then told the family that they could come back the next morning at 9:00 a.m.
Half the Family Allowed in after a Two-Hour Wait
Ms. Li's family returned to the women's prison on time the next day. The guard on duty said, “I have notified the management. You can just wait here.” As Ms. Li's family waited, they watched all the other families who came to visit their loved ones being allowed in to visit them.
Ms. Li's family patiently waited for close to two hours. After the family made multiple requests, the guard finally agreed to allow only half of the relatives to go in.
Prison Guards Create Difficulties to Prevent Relatives from Seeing Ms. Li
A female guard took the family to the director's office, where there were six to seven guards. Yang Libin from the 610 Office demanded that the family show their IDs and their certificates to prove their relationship with Ms. Li. They also checked the family's visitors' cards.
The authorities claimed that the family members there were not the ones registered on the visiting cards and that they were not the ones that Ms. Li would want to meet. Her family said, “We are all Ms. Li Yushu's relatives. It is not possible that she does not want to see us. Let her tell us in person. Have you tortured her so badly that you don't dare to let us see her?”
When the family asked about Ms. Li's physical condition, the team leader from No. 10 ward looked down and said he had just started working there a month before and did not know the details. He told the deputy leader to answer the family's question, then he left. The deputy team leader could not give a straight answer, either.
The family continued to ask to meet with Ms. Li. Two female guards who were responsible for brainwashing practitioners rudely demanded to know if the family members were practicing Falun Gong. They told the family they would have to go back to the local police station in Daxinganling to get proof that they were not practitioners before they would be allowed to meet with Ms. Li.
Ms. Li Yushu Subjected to Severe Physical Abuse and Torture in Prison
Ms. Li has been tortured in the Heilongjiang Women's Prison for close to 11 years. She has been subjected to all kinds of torture, such as being detained in a small solitary cell, tied up, injected with unknown drugs, handcuffed behind her back, slapped in the face, brutally beaten, and having her eyelids propped open with toothpicks and her ears pulled.
Guards also pulled her hair and banged her head against the heating pipes, beat and kicked her, used the broom to hit her face, and stomped on her face. Her thumbs were broken. She was tied up with tying tape for over two years and was tied to a ring on the floor.
She was force-fed with garlic, thick salt water, and chili water. Her throat was injured by chopsticks while being force-fed. Inmates beat her and she passed out. Due to the injuries she sustained, she needed five stitches in her head.
Ms. Li's family went to the prison several times, asking to visit her. Only her brother was allowed to meet with her once. The authorities did not allow any of her other relatives to see her.
For more detailed information about the brutal persecution of Ms. Li Yushu, please read:
Ms. Li Yushu Tortured Daily in Heilongjiang Women's Prison (Photos)
Ms. Li Yushu Brutally Beaten by Inmates in Heilongjiang Women's Prison
Ms. Li Yushu Brutally Tortured in Heilongjiang Women's Prison
