(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old woman was hospitalized on September 10, 2019 after 53 days of detention.
When Ms. Li Liwen's family visited her at the hospital, she was wearing a breathing machine and her eyes were dull.
It was reported that the local district government paid 60,000 yuan towards Ms. Li's medical cost.
Ms. Li, a retired teacher from Jilin City, Jilin Province, was arrested with her husband, Mr. Su Yinshen, on July 19, 2019, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
The officers from Erdao Township Police Station had monitored the couple for some time before arresting them near their apartment building.
Mr. Su was released soon afterwards, but Ms. Li remains in custody at Jilin City Detention Center despite the fact that she developed some medical conditions.
The authorities denied her family's request to release her on bail.
Deprived of Teaching
Ms. Li began to practice Falun Gong in 1998. After the persecution began in July, 1999, she has been repeatedly arrested, harassed, and also served three years at a labor camp between 2000 and 2003 for upholding her faith.
Fearing that she would talk to her students about Falun Gong, the local education bureau transferred her to smaller and more remote schools four times within 10 years. Her last school, the Huniugou Elementary school, is located in a remote mountain area.
One of the schools was once pressured by the authorities to removed her from the teaching position and sent her to the cafeteria to do miscellaneous jobs.
Repeated Arrests and Harassment
Ms. Li was arrested on June 24, 2008, right before the Beijing Olympics. She was tortured in detention and developed uterine fibroids. As no labor camps were willing to admit her due to her poor health condition, she was released after 41 days of detention.
While she was teaching on the morning of September 15, 2009, the officials of the local 610 Office and seven police officers harassed her in the classroom and attempted to take her away.
Her students called their parents over to help. They protected Ms. Li and blocked the police from taking her away. The police gave up after over an hour of standoff.
Ms. Li was arrested again on June 29, 2010. The school principal tried to protect her, but to no avail.
This time, Ms. Li was held at a brainwashing center and subjected to intensive brainwashing sessions from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., where she and other practitioners were abused verbally and intimidated. A few days later, she developed heart disease and high blood pressure. She passed out one afternoon and was resuscitated.
During the time she was held at the brainwashing center, her 88-year-old father and 87-year-old mother-in-law were very worried about her. Despite their advanced age, they went to the brainwashing center several times to visit her. The guards turned them away, saying it was because Ms. Li refused to renounce her faith.
Not until Ms. Li's condition became critical and she was on the verge of death did the authorities release her. By then, she had become emaciated and too weak to walk upstairs by herself.
The local 610 Officers attempted to arrest Ms. Li again on July 5, 2011. But she escaped this time.
Related reports:
A Teacher from Jilin City Arrested and Tortured
Related report in Chinese:
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2019/8/25/吉林优秀教师李丽文屡遭迫害-又被非法关押月余-391891.html
