Location of Torture and Death:
Yaojia Detention Center, Dalian City, Liaoning Province
Perpetrators:
1. Officer Ji of the Lingshui Police Substation
2. Policemen from the Zhou Shuizi Police Substation and Lingshui Police Substation
3. Yaojia Detention Center, Dalian City;
A brief report of the incident:
In the afternoon on May 29, 2001, Chi Yulian was cooking at home when policemen from the Zhou Shuizi Police Substation, led by Officer Ji of Lingshui Police Substation, broke into her home. They threw her onto the bed with both of her hands cuffed. Upon finding Falun Gong books and materials after ransacking her home, they dragged her into the police van. Many people stood around watching. They were enraged and all denounced the actions of the police. Chi Yulian's husband stepped in front of the van in an attempt to stop it, but his wife was taken away in spite of his efforts.
On the next day, the police sent Chi Yulian to the Yaojia Detention Center. At 4:00 pm on June 5th, her husband received a phone call inquiring whether Chi Yulian had had a medical history of "heart attacks." Her husband answered, "No." The caller then said, "Chi Yulian suddenly fell unconscious and was suspected to be having a heart attack. She was sent to the hospital." Her husband asked, "Can I go visit her?" The caller told him, "You can come to the detention center tomorrow morning." On the following day, when he arrived at the detention center, the director of the police substation told him that his wife had died on 6:00 pm the previous day on the way to Xinshiji Hospital, during an effort to save her. Yet, the director would not show him any proof to support what he said. Her husband demanded to see Chi’s body. A police substation officer said, "You have to agree to an autopsy; otherwise you will not be allowed to look at the corpse, and you have to sign your name. Since autopsy is a legal procedure, regardless of whether you sign your name or not, we have to do one." Hence, her husband was deceived into signing his name since, according to the legal regulations, an autopsy can only be done with the family's permission. The autopsy was operated in his presence. He saw that there were very deep handcuff marks around his wife’s wrists. Because he was so grief stricken, he could not continue looking at the body. Later, the body was preserved at the detention center and Chi’s husband was not allowed to make arrangements for the cremation himself. Legally, the body should be given over to the family to make burial arrangements as they see fit.
When the neighbors heard of Ms Chi Yulian’s death, all of them reminded her husband to make clear the cause of her death before the cremation so there would be a chance to seek justice for the deceased. Her husband consulted a lawyer about whether he could appeal in court, but the lawyer answered that no case related to Falun Gong was accepted or legally heard by any court.
News Report:
AFP, “Falun Gong member dies in police detention in northeast China”, June 15, 2001
