Urgent Action Case Sent to the United Nations: Mr. Li Feng in Critical Condition

Mr. Li Feng, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Anguo City, Hebei Province, has been held at the Hebei No. 4 Prison (Shijiazhuang Beijiao Prison) for a long period of time and is now in critical condition. The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group has sent the case to the United Nations through its urgent-action procedures.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sentenced Mr. Li Feng to 15 years in prison following an unfair trial. He was charged with intercepting cable television signals in 2002, a nonviolent act of resistance that a number of practitioners took in an effort to inform the public about the brutality of the persecution against Falun Gong and dispel hate incitement in the state-run media.

Li has since been detained at Hebei Province’s No. 4. Prison. His health has been severely damaged as a result of abuse. Doctors at the Shijiazhuang People’s Hospital and the No. 2 Provincial Hospital diagnosed him as having had a heart attack, as well as suffering from hypertension and coronary disease. In January 2006, Mr. Li fell unconscious for 12 hours. He was hospitalized for two days and could not eat for approximately two weeks. On June 2, 2009, Mr. Li’s blood pressure was reportedly 180 and at times reached 230, and his legs were swollen. Recently, he suffered third degree hypertension, with vertigo and a dull expression on his face, and he has become very weak. His health condition is life threatening.

Urgent-action procedures are designed to protect the victim of human rights abuses from serious danger. Based on the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the United Nations has established related rapporteurs or committees, which are called “the United Nations human rights mechanisms,” to monitor how each member country follows international standards it has committed to. If a rapporteur is sent to investigate a case of persecution, the member country must reply and follow up with an investigation.