Elderly Man Dies After 18 Arrests and Years of Incarceration for Upholding His Faith

(Minghui.org)

Name: Liu ErliChinese Name: 刘而礼Gender: MaleAge: 81City: LoudiProvince: HunanOccupation: Steel company workerDate of Death: January 2, 2023Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 22, 2015Most Recent Place of Detention: Wangling Prison

After being arrested 18 times, given four labor camp terms for a total of 5 years and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, an 81-year-old man from Loudi City, Hunan Province passed away on January 1, 2023. 

Even one month before Mr. Liu Erli’s passing, over ten officers broke into his home and attempted to arrest him. They relented upon seeing that he was completely incapacitated.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Taking Up Falun Gong

Mr. Liu used to work at the Lengshuijiang City Steel Factory. Due to an accident at work, he lost three fingers on his left hand. He took up Falun Gong in August 1998 at the age of 57 and credited the practice for improving his health, especially a lung condition that caused him to have tremendous difficulty breathing. His gray hair also turned black.

18 Arrests

Since the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution, Mr. Liu suffered non-stop arrests, incarceration and harassment. The mental, physical and financial persecution took a toll on his health and led to his passing.

Mr. Liu’s first arrest was in July 2000 while doing Falun Gong exercises in a park. He was detained for 15 days.

Only two weeks after he was released, he was arrested again in August 2000 at home. The police put him on residential surveillance after nine days of detention.

His third arrest was in August 2002 at home. He was detained for four months this time.

His fourth arrest was in June 2003 by agents of the Loudi City 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecution. Wu, the deputy director of the 610 Office, slapped him in the face. He was released after three days at the Lengshuijiang Police Station.

For doing Falun Gong exercises in a plaza, Mr. Liu was arrested the fifth time in April 2004. The police searched his home several times for Falun Gong books. After 15 days of detention, he was given 1.5 years at the Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp in Changsha City. He was subjected to constant beating and electric shocks. 

Torture reenactment: electric shocks

Mr. Liu’s sixth arrest was on December 6, 2009 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. He was also given a one-year term at the Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp after 15 days of detention, but was rejected admission due to his physical condition.

A month later on January 25, 2010, Mr. Liu was arrested yet another time while putting up Falun Gong materials. The police still gave him one year at the Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp after 15 days of detention. While the labor camp accepted him this time, he was released four months later on June 1, as he was on the verge of death due to the torture in custody.

On July 22, 2010, just as he was recovering, the 610 Office agents and the police ransacked his home and held him at the Domestic Security Office for a day.

His ninth arrest was in mid-March 2011 and he was again held at the Domestic Security Office for a day. 

Days later, on March 26, 2011, while distributing DVDs with information about Falun Gong, Mr. Liu was arrested the tenth time. The police ransacked his home and gave him the fourth labor camp term of 1.5 years after 15 days of detention. He was again rejected admission due to his physical condition.

Upon hearing that he was again rejected admission by the labor camp, the 610 Office agents and police forcibly arrested Mr. Liu on April 18, 2011, only a few days after he returned home. Before they took him to a local brainwashing center, Mr. Liu escaped on the second day. The police staked out his son’s home for a week and also forced the younger man to take them to their relatives’ homes to look for his father by threatening to force his manager to fire him if he didn’t comply.

Mr. Liu’s twelfth arrest was on February 16, 2012, also for distributing Falun Gong materials. His home was ransacked and he was released on the same day.

He was arrested again three weeks later on March 6, 2012 while walking on the street. The police confiscated over 100 copies of Falun Gong DVDs from him and released him in the afternoon, after he failed the physical examination.

His next arrest was on August 29, 2012. Over ten 610 Office agents and police officers carried him into the police car and took him to the Lengshuijiang City Procuratorate. He talked to the prosecutor for a few hours and was released around noon.

The police again arrested him on December 26, 2013 and took him to the Lengshuijiang City Procuratorate and Lengshuijiang City Procuratorate for an interview. He was released hours later.

On January 26, 2014, only four days before the Chinese New Year, Mr. Liu was arrested and taken to the court. He was told that he had been indicted and booked to appear in court on February 28, 2014. It’s not clear whether the hearing took place.

While taking his grandson to school on January 12, 2015, Mr. Liu was arrested the seventeenth time and taken to the police station for another interrogation.

Only ten days later and also on his way to take his grandson to school, Mr. Liu was arrested the last time and taken to the Lengshuijiang City Detention Center. The court held a secret hearing of his case days later without informing his family. When his family went to the court on February 2, 2015 to inquire about his case, the judge accused him of not cooperating or pleading guilty. Only then did they realize that he had been tried. Mr. Liu was sentenced to 3.5 years on March 16 and the judge forbade him from appealing the verdict. 

Mr. Liu suffered relentless torture after being taken to the Wangling Prison on April 8, 2015. Most of the guards didn’t expect he could survive.

After Mr. Liu was released on July 21, 2018, he struggled with poor health. He was dealt another blow when the authorities suspended his pension. He eventually passed away on January 2, 2023.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Zeng Boyi (曾伯怡), secretary of the Lengshuijiang Municipal Party Committee: [phone]Chen Chuangye (陈创业), deputy secretary of the Lengshuijiang Municipal Party Committee: [phone]Yang Haizhou (杨海洲), instructor of the Domestic Security Office: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

“Leg-splitting” Torture at Wangling Prison