Mr. Sun Jihong was 40 years old and worked at the Hua'nan Forestry Company's Xianfeng site in Heilongjiang Province. In 1994, he learned to practice Falun Dafa. In November 1999, he was detained for 15 days for being a Falun Gong practitioner. He was put under strict surveillance after being released. In addition, he was forced to go to the police station twice a day to sign in. In July 2000 he was arrested again. After being released, he was subjected to constant harassment and persecution. In January 2001, in order to avoid further persecution, he had to leave his home. In January 2002, he was arrested in Beijing. While being held in custody and escorted by the authorities back to his hometown, Mr. Sun jumped off the train and managed to escape the detention and torture he knew he was going to be subjected to upon his return. On September 25, 2002, Beijing police apprehended him again, and detained him at the Yuquanying area in Fengtai District. Four days later, on September 29, he was subjected to a round of excruciating torture from which he died. On October 2, 2002, his body was cremated.

It was reported that when Mr. Sun's family members went to confirm his identity, upon viewing his body they noticed his face was covered with a very thick layer of white powder. After the powder was wiped off under the family’s strong insistence, it was clear that he had been brutalized. There was a hole between his eyebrows, a hole on each of his cheeks, and his body had cuts and bruises everywhere.

Mr. Sun's wife Ms. Yuan Hezhen was 41 years old and also started practicing Falun Gong in 1994. She worked in the Hua'nan Forestry Company's Xianfeng site in Heilongjiang Province as a bank director. In November 1999 after the persecution started, she was detained for 15 days for being a Falun Gong practitioner. After being released, she was put on strict surveillance. In January of 2001, because of the mass arrests of practitioners by the Hua'nan Forestry Company police, she was forced to leave her home. In May 2002, the police arrested her in Beijing and sent her to a detention center. At the detention center, she suffered fierce group beatings, had her hands handcuffed behind her back, and went through force-feeding and other cruel tortures. She began to spit up blood and pass blood in her feces, and her body was extremely weak. Though she was eventually let out of the detention center, her body had suffered serious damage through the course of her imprisonment. She had to live in different places and living conditions, and she could not recover her health. Her physical condition worsened every day, and she passed away in July 2003.

Mr. Sun and Ms. Yuan left behind their 16-year-old daughter Sun Yubo. Sun Yubo is studying at Hua’nan High School, Grade 1, Class Three. Her paternal grandmother, Ms. Su Fengxian, is her custodian. Ms. Su is a retiree of the Hua’nan Forestry Bureau of Heilongjiang Province.

type=Case, Children; type=Case, Death;