A 35-year-old woman follower of Falun Gong was killed by her fellow
practitioners for trying to break away from the cult, 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
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 O.K., 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 province.
Lan and his confederates made an instant report to Xu Xian, 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.