Mother Beaten to Death for Her Faith
Minghui.org recently confirmed the details of Ms. Yang Lihua’s death, a 43-year-old Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province resident, who was killed in 2019 by inmates while serving a three-year term for her faith at Heilongjiang Women’s Prison. She is survived by her husband and their two teenage children.
Yang was arrested on November 17, 2017, while appealing to the local government after the police forced the gas station she worked at to fire her. She was sentenced to three years for her faith by the Sunwu County Court on December 26, 2017. Although she appealed her sentence, the Heihe City Intermediate Court rejected it.
According to an insider, when Yang refused to do the unpaid prison labor in early November 2019, inmate Jiao Lili ordered two drug addicts, Li Yuna and Zhao Dongmei, to beat her.
Even as Yang was on the verge of death, Suo Yuanyuan, the deputy head of the eighth ward, refused to do anything. Eventually, another inmate, Tong Jinyan, suggested taking her to the hospital.
On November 5, 2019, the prison notified Yang’s family that she was in critical condition due to an illness. She had already died when her husband, brother, and sister-in-law rushed to the Harbin Medical University Affiliated 2nd Hospital.
Yang’s family demanded to see her medical record. In response, a prison guard briefly flashed the paperwork, without allowing them to read any details. When her family asked why her body was covered with bruises, the prison guards claimed it was livor mortis.
Yang’s family requested an autopsy, but the prison authorities refused stating that the necessary permission to perform an autopsy would take months to be approved.
The prison authorities then forced Yang’s family to sign a consent form to have her cremated. Her loved ones brought her ashes back on November 9, 2019.
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Based on an original report from Minghui.org
