(Minghui.org) A Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province resident was admitted to the Jilin Province Second Prison on February 25, 2025 to serve a four-year term for practicing Falun Gong.
Mr. Li Wen, a former employee of People’s Bank of China, was arrested on September 19, 2024 and wrongfully convicted by the Liaoyuan City Court. Prior to his latest persecution, he and his wife Ms. Li Yuqiu were both jailed for four years (May 2008 – May 2012) for their shared faith in Falun Gong.
The police showed up at Mr. Li’s door on May 12, 2008. When he refused to let them in, they shut off power to his unit and sealed the apartment building entrance. They also installed a surveillance camera there.
After a nearly one-month standoff, Mr. Li finally opened the door after the police threatened to break in and arrest him. They raided his home and confiscated 7,000 yuan in cash, a certificate of deposit with a 20,000-yuan balance, two computers, five printers, one MP3 player, and Falun Gong books.
As Mr. Li and his wife had become extremely weak due to lack of food during the month-long standoff, the police put them on bail after the home raid. The couple went into hiding and settled in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. The Liaoyuan police put them on the wanted list.
On March 6, 2009, officer Gao Yusheng from the Liaoyuan City Domestic Security Division, along with his counterparts in the Beilu Police Station in Taiyuan City, arrested Ms. Li while she was working at a supermarket. Her husband was arrested at their rental place at around the same time by another group of officers. The police seized 5,000 yuan in cash and a laptop.
The couple were held at the Taiyuan City Detention Center for two days before being escorted back to Jilin Province and put in the Liaoyuan City Detention Center.
The Longshan District Court in Liaoyuan City tried the couple at the detention center on June 5, 2009 and sentenced both of them to four years on June 24. Ms. Li was admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on September 15 and her husband to the Siping Prison two days later.
Mr. Li and other jailed Falun Gong practitioners suffered brutal torture at the Siping Prison, including being beaten with clubs, PVC pipes, wooden planks, and metal pipes; being shocked with electric batons; having their testicles squeezed and genitals yanked; being forced to eat chili peppers; and having a broomstick inserted into their anus.
In mid-May 2012, the prison launched another round of intensified persecution. Mr. Li refused to renounce his faith and was shocked with two electric batons simultaneously. He was also not allowed to sleep.
Another practitioner, Mr. Shi Guoliang, was also shocked with two electric batons simultaneously on July 6, 2012. His body twitched uncontrollably as a result and he bit his tongue in pain, but the guards kept beating him. That night he was taken to a hospital to treat his injured tongue. He ended up having nine stitches on his tongue.