A 35-year-old woman follower of Falun Gong was killed by her fellow
practitioners for trying to break away from the cult in
Xiamen, Fujian,
headed by Li Hongzhi, early this year, according to local law
enforcement department.
Evidence indicates that Wei Zhihua was killed mercilessly last
February by more than ten Falun Gong followers including her own
husband Lan Shaowei, who believed her mind was infected with "evil"
and needed to be cured with doctrines from Li Hongzhi's books.
After Wei's death, the practitioners, with collective efforts,
concealed the truth, produced fake evidence and kept the case
hidden for months before a fellow practitioner told local police
about the truth in July, judicial investigation has showed.
A
witness, who also took part in the action, confessed that on
February 19 Lan Shaowei and other followers bound up Wei's hands
and feet and then they read aloud Li Hongzhi's doctrines to get rid
of the "evil in her mind". As Wei struggled and shouted, they
sealed her mouth and nose in spite of her strong resistance.
"Wei was struggling at first and cried that she does not want to be
disciple of Li Hongzhi anymore, so they sealed her mouth and nose
to stop her," said the witness.
Then the practitioners read aloud until Wei eventually ceased
struggling and fell into coma.
The Falun Gong followers present were excited at Wei's coma and one
of them, named Ouyang Jie, yelled, "It's OK, the evil is removed,"
the witness recalled.
However, Wei never awoke. Medical staff indicated that she were
dead due to respiration failure.
Police investigation revealed that Wei, once a firm follower of
Falun Gong, cast doubt on Li Hongzhi's doctrines after her beloved
mother-in-law, also a pious practitioner, died last year because of
refusing to see doctor for illness, as instructed in the doctrines
by Li Hongzhi.
After that, while still practicing Falun Gong, Wei often doubted if
it was really right. Later, she began to curse Li Hongzhi and
condemn him for not saving her mother-in-law.
Such things greatly angered other followers, who believed she was
controlled by "evil" and the local leaders of the cult decided to
eradicate it in accordance with what Li Hongzhi requires in his
books.
Wei's death caused a tremor among other practitioners in Shenzhen,
a well-off coastal city in south China's Guangdong .
Lan and his confederates made an instant report to Xu Xi’an, their
superior in the cult with the alias "Da Shan", who told them time
and again not to admit that the death has anything to do with Falun
Gong in case police get to know about it.
"If the people know about the true story, they will at once be
clear about what kind of things Falun Gong actually is," said Li
Yan, an activist involved in the case.
The participants were instructed to conceal the facts and they
conspired to make identical confessions to deal with the possible
police investigation, investigation showed.
(Xinhua News
Agency 09/19/2001)