Falun Dafa Woman Dies in Police Custody in China

NEW YORK (FDI) — During the Chinese Spring Festival in 2003, Liu Jie, a 37-year-old woman practitioner was tortured to death for peacefully distributing greeting cards with the Chinese characters for “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance” on them.

Ms. Liu was an employee of the Shuangcheng City Beer Factory in Heilongjiang Province. On February 6, 2003, while distributing a New Year greeting card with the characters “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance” — the guiding principles of Falun Dafa — to people from their own mini-van, she and her husband were reported to the police, who then took away the couple and their van.

Ms. Liu was detained at the Second Detention Center.

Ms. Liu’s husband does not practice Falun Gong, so he was released after being illegally detained for one day in the police department, and being illegally fined 1,000 Yuan.

On February 17, 2003, the police informed Ms. Liu’s family of her death.

Eighty-three practitioners of Falun Dafa are known to have died from police torture and abuse in Heilongjiang Province. Ten of those deaths, including Ms. Liu, have occurred in Shuangcheng City.

Ms. Liu’s family members say she was probably tortured to death days before February 17.